Case Notes

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, has affirmed a lower court ruling holding that an insurer's duty to defend was triggered under Coverage B of a general liability insurance policy by allegations that a policyholder was responsible for private health information appearing on a publicly accessible website. Travelers Indem. Co. v. Portal Healthcare Solutions LLC, 14-1944 (4th Cir. Apr. 11, 2016).

The policyholder, a company that electronically stored and maintained patients' confidential medical records, was sued in a class action lawsuit based on allegations that certain claimants were able to access their medical records in the policyholder's possession by conducting a Google search of their respective names and clicking on the first search result that came up. Specifically, the claimants alleged that their medical records were accessible, viewable, copyable, printable, and downloadable from the Internet by unauthorized persons and without security restriction for a period of nearly five months. The policyholder sought coverage under two consecutive commercial general liability policies that it had been issued, and a coverage action soon followed. The policies at issue provided specified Coverage B insurance coverage for “electronic publication of material that” “gives unreasonable publicity to” or “discloses information about” “a person's private life.”