New Era Enterprises Convinces Court to Narrow Data Breach Suit

New Era Enterprises convinced a federal judge to narrow a data breach complaint stemming from the leak of Social Security numbers, identification information, and medical treatment data.

The plaintiffs can’t request damages based on their alleged emotional harm and can’t proceed with an implied breach of contract claim, Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas said. Their claims for negligence per se under the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act are also dismissed.

Texas law doesn’t recognize negligence per se, Rosenthal said. But there might be other states that do, ...