Paul v. Providence Health System-Oregon

Plaintiffs brought this class action after unencrypted records containing personal, medical, and financial information of an estimated 365,000 patientswere stolen from the car of one of defendants employees. Plaintiffs alleged that defendant had negligently failed to safeguard those records and that defendant had violated the Unlawful Trade Practices Act (UTPA) by representing that it would keep patient information confidential when it knew that it had not taken sufficient steps to ensure that. Plaintiffs sought injunctive relief and damages for past and future costs of credit-monitoring services to protect against identity theft and for emotional distress. The trial court granted defendants ORCP 21 A(8) motions to dismiss plaintiffs complaint for failure to state a claim, concluding that the relief sought was barred by Lowe v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 207 Or App 532, 142 P3d 1079 (2006) (Lowe I), affd, 344 Or 403, 183 P3d 181 (2008) (Lowe II). The court also granted defendants motion under ORCP 32 I to strike the class allegations from the complaint. Plaintiffs appeal, assigning error to both rulings. On appeal, we affirm the trial courts dismissal of plaintiffs claims and, accordingly, do not reach plaintiffs contention that the court erred in striking the class allegations.