Parties Seek Stays Awaiting JPML Ruling on Transfer Motion in MOVEit Data Breach MDL
U.S. District Judge George Russell granted defendants Johns Hopkins Health System and Johns Hopkins University their unopposed second motion to stay a deadline to respond to a negligence class action involving the MOVEit data breach, said his Friday order (docket…
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(docket 1:23-cv-01826) in U.S. District Court for Maryland in Baltimore. Plaintiff Pamela Hunter sued the Johns Hopkins defendants in July, alleging they disregarded her rights by intentionally, recklessly or negligently failing to take and implement adequate and reasonable measures to ensure her personal health information was safeguarded. The defendants failed to take available steps to prevent unauthorized disclosure of data and failed to follow required and appropriate protocols, policies and procedures for data encryption resulting from the May MOVEit data breach, Hunter alleged. In another class action involving the MOVEit data breach, plaintiff “John Doe” and defendants Pension Benefit Information (PBI) and Progress Software Corp. (PSC), jointly moved (docket 3:23-cv-01610) Friday to stay proceedings pending the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation’s ruling on a July 7 motion by plaintiff Bruce Bailey for transfer and centralization of related MOVEit actions currently before the panel. PBI hasn't filed a responsive pleading to Doe’s Aug. 31 complaint; it's due Nov. 6. On Sept. 25, PBI filed its own third-party complaint against PSC. At the time of the Doe filing, 100 similar actions involving the MOVEit breach had begun in 22 U.S. District Courts, it said. Bailey’s transfer motion requests that the JPML transfer certain actions to U.S. District Court for Minnesota for coordinated pretrial proceeding, including the Doe case. The JPML held a hearing on Bailey's transfer motion Sept. 28. Based on the pendency of that motion, the parties in the Doe case request that the court stay the action until 30 days after entry of the JPML’s final determination of the transfer motion.