A privacy lawsuit against Sutter Health has been dismissed by a state appellate court this week.
The court ruled that the healthcare facility's patients could not sue over the theft of a computer that contained their personal, medical and insurance records on its hard drive, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee. The lawsuit would have cost Sutter $4 billion.
The court decided there was not sufficient evidence that unauthorized people have actually seen the hard drive's contents. That, in turn, deprives the patients of grounds to seek civil damages, according to the article.
The lawsuit stemmed from the theft of a desktop computer in October 2011 from a Sutter Health office. Patients filed lawsuits alleging violations of California's Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. The suits eventually were coordinated and a class action suit was filed. Article