Plaintiff Rebecca Petta brought class action claims against Taft client Christie Business Holdings Co., P.C., d/b/a Christie Clinic alleging Christie negligently failed to prevent its patients’ private personal data from being “exposed” to an unknown third party who gained unauthorized access to one of Christie’s business email accounts. Petta claimed that her personal information was stolen in the data breach and that she subsequently experienced identity fraud in the form of unauthorized attempts to open bank loans using her phone number and hometown. Christie moved to dismiss Petta’s complaint for lack of standing. The circuit court dismissed Petta’s complaint with prejudice and the Illinois Appellate Court, Fifth District, affirmed. Plaintiff then appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.

On Jan. 24, 2025, the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the dismissal of Petta’s complaint with prejudice. This was the first time the Illinois Supreme Court considered what a plaintiff must allege to have standing to sue in data breach cases. It held that Petta lacked standing because she did not adequately plead that her private, personally identifiable information was misused in a subsequent instance of identity fraud. Agreeing with Taft’s suggestion that a bright line should be drawn between the alleged misuse of publicly available personal information and private information (such as a Social Security number) in data breach actions, the supreme court held that to survive a standing challenge, Petta was required to allege facts demonstrating that that her private information was actually stolen in the breach and then misused in combination with her name by a bad actor. The court further held that the alleged instances of identity fraud were not fairly traceable to Christie’s alleged negligence, and were thus impermissibly speculative, because the personal information used in the bank loan applications was publicly available.

Taft partners Jonathan Amarilio and Jaimin Shah represented Christie alongside Nelson Mullins attorney Jeffrey Schieber.

Amarilio is co-chair of the firm’s Appellate group. He represents individuals, businesses, and state and local governments before state and federal appellate courts. He is especially experienced representing clients in the Illinois Appellate Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Shah is an intellectual property litigator focusing on patent, trademark, and trade secret cases in federal courts across the country.