From Article III to Zoroastrianism, and Game of War In Between
Beck v. McDonald, 848 F.3d 262 (4th Cir. 2017)
What are your options if a company loses your personal information? Well, one option is out—a suit in federal court. After a VA center had a data breach, a group of veterans sought to bring suit. The Fourth Circuit found that the veterans did not have standing. The court explained that “not all threatened injuries constitute an injury-in-fact.” Because the veterans could not show that the stolen information had been misused or even accessed, the possibility of identity theft was purely speculative. And the veterans’ “self-imposed harms” of procuring credit monitoring services could not create standing.
Mason v. Mach. Zone, Inc., 851 F.3d 315 (4th Cir. 2017)
Sometimes the line between reality and fiction is difficult to discern. This case was a putative class action in which the plaintiff alleged that she lost money after spinning a prize wheel in a Game of War app. But in reality, the “money” involved was only virtual money, and the potential “prizes” were only virtual prizes. The Fourth Circuit explained that state gambling law does not encompass virtual money, and the district court correctly dismissed the complaint.
Zoroastrian Ctr. & Darb-E-Mehr of Metro. Wash., D.C. v. Rustam Guiv Found. of N.Y., 822 F.3d 739 (4th Cir. 2016)
Where is a trust a “citizen” for purposes of diversity jurisdiction? Good question. The underlying issue in this case involved a lease dispute between a religious entity and a charitable trust. The trust removed the case to federal court, and the district court eventually granted summary judgment to the trust. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit addressed the trust’s citizenship—at least in part. Although the standard for future cases is still unclear, the court found that diversity existed in this case because the defendant had submitted evidence that all of the trustees and trust beneficiaries were residents of a state other than the plaintiff’s.
Article originally appeared in DRI's The Business Suit, June 2017, Vol. 21, Issue 3. Reproduced with permission.
