District Court Rejects Supervisor Liability For State Employee’s Motor Vehicle Record Data Breach

In a recent decision, the Federal District Court of Minnesota found that state agencies were not liable in a data breach class action suit involving a rogue employee's unauthorized viewing of personal information in drivers license records. Kiminiski v. Hunt, No. 13-185 (JNE/TNL) (D. Minn. Sept. 20, 2013). The case arose from the unauthorized viewing of Plaintiffs' private data from their motor vehicle records by John Hunt, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources ("DNR") employee. In a consolidated class action complaint, Plaintiffs brought claims for violations of the federal Drivers' Privacy Protection Act ("DPPA") and their constitutional right to privacy against Hunt and various employees of the DNR and the state Department of Public Safety ("DPS"), the agency that originally collected the data. All Defendants other than Hunt (the "State Defendants") brought a motion to dismiss the action arguing that Plaintiffs failed to state a claim for which relief can be granted, and the district court granted the dismissal.

The DPPA generally prohibits state DMVs and other agencies and individuals from disclosing private data held in DMV records, except as authorized by the statute. Specifically, the DPPA allows for a civil claim against any individual who "knowingly obtains, discloses or uses personal information, from a motor vehicle record, for a purpose not permitted" under the statute. 18 U.S.C. § 2724(a). Plaintiffs alleged that the State Defendants violated this section of the DPPA by allowing Hunt to access the private data without safeguards to ensure that his use was for permissible purposes. However, the Court found that the DPPA's "knowing" disclosure requirement means that the Plaintiffs needed to allege that the State Defendants granted Hunt access to the database with knowledge that he would do so for unpermitted purposes. As Hunt was a state employee whose job required access to the database for legitimate purposes and the complaint alleged no facts that made it plausible that the State Defendants "knowingly" gave defendant Hunt database access "for a purpose not permitted" by the DPPA, the court dismissed the DPPA claims.

Plaintiffs also sought recovery pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which allows for claims for the deprivation of a Constitutional or otherwise federally protected right by a person acting under the color of state law. Plaintiffs alleged that the State Defendants...