CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals granted a writ of prohibition in a case involving a class action against West Virginia University Hospitals-East Inc.
The hospitals in the suit include Berkeley Medical Center, City Hospital and Charles Town General Hospital.
Chief Justice Evan Jenkins authored the majority opinion. Justices John Hutchison and Bill Wooten dissented.
The underlying suit arose after an employee of the hospitals misappropriated the private information of certain patients from the hospitals’ medical records during the course of performing her authorized job duties.
Deborah Welch and Eugene Roman successfully certified a class of approximately 7,445 individuals, which represented every medical record accessed by the employee during the relevant period of her employment.
"Hospitals argue that the class representatives lack standing because they have suffered no injury-in-fact from the employee's legitimate access to their confidential records," Jenkins wrote. "We agree with respect to Ms.Welch, and, based upon our finding that she has suffered no injury-in-fact, we conclude that she lacks standing to bring the claims asserted in this matter."
The hospitals additionally argued that certain prerequisites to class certification were not met in this case and the Supreme Court addressed that issue only as to Roman and the subclass of 109 individuals he represents and find that the circuit court failed to provide a thorough analysis of the typicality prerequisite in light of Roman’s circumstances and claims.
"Accordingly, after considering the briefs and oral arguments of the parties, and the appendix record for this matter, we grant the requested writ and prohibit the circuit court from enforcing its order of December 23, 2020, granting class certification," Jenkins wrote. "We remand this case for additional proceedings consistent with this opinion."
The employee, Angela Roberts, was hired in February 2014 to work as a registration specialist at the Berkeley Medical Center and the Jefferson Medical Center. Two years later, Roberts began a romantic relationship with Ajarhi Roberts and he convinced her to steal personal information from patient files so he could commit bank and credit card fraud.
Later that year, law enforcement conducted a search at Ajarhi Roberts' home and found the slips of paper where Angela Roberts had transcribed patient information, as well as printed copies of drivers' licenses from patients.
"After Hospitals became aware of the criminal investigation, they examined every record accessed by Ms. Roberts since the beginning of her relationship with Mr. Roberts," Jenkins wrote. "Hospitals determined that, as part of her job duties, Ms. Roberts legitimately accessed the data of approximately 7,445 patients between March 2016, when her relationship with Mr. Roberts began, and January 2017, when Hospitals became aware of Ms. Roberts’s misconduct."
Jenkins wrote that Welch was improperly certified as a named plaintiff in the class action due to her lack of standing. He also wrote that Roman's claims are not typical for the class, as he did not call the hospital to make an appointment and had appeared in person and dealt with someone other than Angela Roberts.
"Due to the absence of any consideration by the circuit court of Mr. Roman’s individual circumstances as they relate to the claims he asserts, we find the circuit court’s order fails to provide the 'thorough analysis' required..." Jenkins wrote.
Jenkins wrote that because the circuit court failed to thoroughly analyze typicality with respect to Roman’s individual circumstances as they relate to the claims he asserts and the class he represents, the Supreme Court granted the requested writ and prohibit the circuit court from enforcing that portion of its order of December 23, 2020, granting class certification to “a subclass of those 109 individuals whose information was found in the possession of Angela Roberts’ accomplice.
"Should the circuit court be asked to reconsider class certification on remand, it should carefully apply this standard in assessing the predominance requisite to class certification," Jenkins wrote. "For the reasons stated in the body of this opinion, we grant the requested writ and prohibit the circuit court from enforcing its order of December 23, 2020, granting class certification. We remand this case for additional proceedings consistent with this opinion."
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number: 21-0095