It is said that as Maine goes, so goes the nation. But as for whether the rest of the nation wants to actually go to Maine, well, that’s another story. This case got started when 1.6 million customers of a Florida grocery chain called “Kash ‘n Karry” learned that the store computers had been hacked and the hackers had gotten access to virtually all their credit card information. Since they were all Floridians and Kash ‘n Karry is a Florida corporation, they sued in Florida State Court. They immediately ran into the Class Action Fairness Act, which allowed the defendant to remove the case from State Court to Federal Court, and it ended up in the Federal District Court in Maine. The Florida plaintiffs appealed and the First Circuit has just send the case back to the “sunshine state.” The Court said the home state exception applies when the class members and the defendant are citizens of the state in which the action was originally filed. So cash won’t carry the case up north and the main event will be in Florida.

THIS IS NEIL CHAYET LOOKING AT THE LAW™

Hannaford Bros. Co., Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, (Grimsdale vs. Kash’n Karry Food Stores, Inc., First Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 09-1392 5-1-09, Lynch, J. USLW, Vol. 77, No. 43, Pg. 1679 5-12-099

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