BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE SETTLEMENT
The Court authorized the Notice because you have the right to know about the proposed Settlement of this class action lawsuit and about all of your rights and options before the Court decides whether to grant final approval of the Settlement. The Notice explains the lawsuit, the Settlement, your legal rights, what benefits are available, who is eligible for the benefits, and how to receive those benefits.
The case is known as Pope v. Benson Area Medical Center, Inc. a/k/a Benson Health, Case No. 22CVS002873-500, in the North Carolina Superior Court (the “Action”). The individual who filed this lawsuit, Michael Pope, is called the “Plaintiff” and the company that was sued, Benson Area Medical Center, Inc. a/k/a Benson Health, is called the “Defendant.”
In May 2021, a ransomware incident was perpetrated against Benson Health (the “Data Incident”). As a result, the Private Information of approximately 28,913 individuals may have been impacted by the Data Incident. Private Information means certain personal information, including but not limited to, names, dates of birth, and Social Security Numbers (“PII”), as well as certain protected health information (“PHI”).
Plaintiff brought the action individually and on behalf of all persons whose Private Information, he alleged, was compromised and subject to unauthorized access and exfiltration, theft, or disclosure as a direct result of the ransomware attack on Benson Health’s information system’s security, an event disclosed on or around July 2022. The initial complaint was filed August 26, 2022, in North Carolina Superior Court, and pleaded claims for negligence, negligence per se, invasion of privacy, and violations of the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Act (the “Act” or “UDTPA”).
In a class action, one or more people sue on behalf of all people who have similar claims. Together, all of these people are called a “Class” or “Class Members.” One court resolves the issues for all Settlement Class Members, except for those Settlement Class Members who exclude themselves from the Class. The Plaintiff and Class Representative in this case is Michael Pope.
The Plaintiff and Defendant disagree over the legal claims alleged in the Action. The Action has not gone to trial, and the Court has not decided in favor of the Plaintiff or Defendant (collectively referred to as the “Parties”). Instead, the Parties have agreed to settle the Action and agree that the Settlement Agreement offers significant benefits to all Settlement Class Members and is fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interest of the Plaintiff and all Settlement Class Members.
WHO IS INCLUDED IN THE SETTLEMENT?
The Settlement Class includes: All individuals residing in the United States to whom Defendant sent a notice concerning the May 2021 ransomware incident perpetrated against Benson Health.
If you did not receive Notice by mail, or if you have any questions as to whether you are a Settlement Class Member, you may contact the Settlement Administrator by mail or email:
Pope Data Breach Settlement
c/o Atticus Administration
PO Box 64053
St. Paul, MN 55164
PopeDataSettlement@atticusadmin.com
Telephone: 1-800-681-7107
THE SETTLEMENT BENEFITS
Under the Settlement, Benson Health has agreed to pay up to $350,000.00 (“maximum amount”) for Valid Claims submitted by Settlement Class Members seeking reimbursement for ordinary out-of-pocket expenses (up to $300.00 per Settlement Class Member) and/or extraordinary losses (up to $1,000.00 per Settlement Class Member).
Settlement Class Members are also eligible to receive credit monitoring protections. The cost to provide credit monitoring protections is included in the $350,000.00 maximum amount.
Benson Health will also pay for the costs of notice and administration services, as well as any award for Attorneys’ Fees, Costs, and Expenses and/or Service Award approved by the Court.
Additionally, Benson Health has agreed to implement certain security-related enhancements.
Settlement Class Members can submit a Claim Form for reimbursement of ordinary out-of-pocket expenses, not to exceed $300.00 per Settlement Class Member, that were incurred as a result of the Data Incident.
Ordinary out-of-pocket expenses include: (i) unreimbursed bank fees; (ii) long distance phone charges; (iii) cell phone charges (only if charged by the minute); (iv) data charges (only if charged based on the amount of data used); (v) postage; (vi) gasoline for local travel; and (vii) fees for credit reports, or other identity theft protection services and plans purchased between May 1, 2021 and February 11, 2025. Settlement Class Members must submit documentation demonstrating the out-of-pocket expenses claimed.
Settlement Class Members may also claim up to four (4) hours for time spent responding to issues raised by the Data Incident (calculated at a rate of $17.50 per hour). To be eligible for reimbursement of time spent, Settlement Class Members must provide a brief description of activities engaged in responding to the incident and the time spent on each such activity, and attest that any claimed lost time was spent responding to issues raised by the Data Incident. Reimbursement for time spent is subject to the $300.00 maximum amount for ordinary out-of-pocket expenses per Settlement Class Member.
Settlement Class Members can submit a Claim Form for reimbursement of extraordinary losses, not to exceed $1,000.00 per Settlement Class Member.
Extraordinary losses: (i) are actual, documented, and unreimbursed; (ii) were more likely than not caused by the Data Incident; (iii) occurred between May 1, 2021, and February 11, 2025; and (iv) are not already covered by ordinary out-of-pocket expenses. Settlement Class Members must have made reasonable efforts to avoid, or seek reimbursement for, the loss, including but not limited to exhaustion (if applicable) of the Settlement Class Member’s credit monitoring insurance and identity theft insurance.
Documentation supporting extraordinary losses may include receipts or other documentation that documents the costs incurred. “Self-prepared” documents such as handwritten receipts are, by themselves, insufficient to receive reimbursement, but may be considered to add clarity to or support to other submitted documentation.
Settlement Class Members are eligible to claim one (1) year of one credit bureau credit monitoring and $1 million in identity theft insurance protections. No supporting documentation is necessary to receive this Settlement benefit. Settlement Class Members must affirmatively request credit monitoring by indicating such request on the Claim Form, and codes will be sent either to an email address provided by the Settlement Class Member or, if they do not have an email address, mailed to the address provided on the claim form.
Benson Health has implemented or agreed to implement enhancements to its data system security-related measures, which will provide additional protection for the Private Information of the Plaintiff and Settlement Class Members that are still in its possession. Defendant has identified these measures for Plaintiff’s counsel and provided supporting documentation with such identification and documents treated as highly confidential. Defendant will be prepared to address the disclosed measures with the Court during the Settlement approval process or as otherwise specified by the Court.
Unless you exclude yourself, you are choosing to remain in the Settlement Class. If the Settlement is approved and becomes Final, all of the Court’s orders will apply to you and legally bind you. You will not be able to sue, continue to sue, or be part of any other lawsuit against Benson Health or the Released Parties about the legal issues resolved by this Settlement, and released by the Settlement Agreement. The specific rights you are giving up are called Released Claims (see next question).
“Released Parties” means Benson Health and all of its past, present, and future parent companies, partnerships, subsidiaries, affiliates, divisions, employees, servants, members, providers, partners, principals, directors, officers, shareholders, and owners, and all of their respective attorneys, heirs, executors, administrators, insurers, coinsurers, reinsurers, joint ventures, personal representatives, predecessors, successors, transferees, trustees, authorized agents, and assigns, and includes, without limitation, any Person related to any such entities who is, was, or could have been named as a defendant in the Litigation.
“Released Claims” collectively means any and all past, present, and future claims, petitions, complaints, suits, demands, charges, causes of action, lawsuits, or other proceedings whereby a Person may seek set-offs, costs, expenses, attorneys’ fees, losses, rights, obligations, debts, contract enforcement, penalties, damages, or liabilities against another of any nature whatsoever, and including, but not limited to, any and all claims for damages, injunctive relief, disgorgement, declaratory relief, equitable relief, attorneys’ fees and expenses, pre-judgment interest, credit monitoring services, the creation of a fund for future damages, statutory damages, punitive damages, special damages, exemplary damages, restitution, and/or the appointment of a receiver, whether known or unknown, liquidated or unliquidated, accrued or unaccrued, fixed or contingent, direct or derivative, in law or equity, by statute or common law, matured or not yet matured, and any other form of legal or equitable relief that either has been asserted, was asserted, or could have been asserted, by any Settlement Class Member against any of the Released Parties based on, relating to, concerning or arising out of the Data Incident or the allegations, transactions, occurrences, facts, or circumstances alleged in or otherwise described in the Litigation. Released Claims shall not include the right of any Settlement Class Member or any of the Released Parties to enforce the terms of the Settlement contained in this Settlement Agreement and shall not include the claims of Settlement Class Members who have timely excluded themselves from the Class. Released Claims shall not include any claims unrelated to the Data Incident that Plaintiff and Settlement Class Members have, or may have in the future, against Benson Health, and, to avoid doubt, that Benson Health may have, or may have in the future, against Plaintiff or any Settlement Class Member. As of the date of the Settlement Agreement, Plaintiff is not aware of any claims he may have against Benson Health unrelated to the Data Incident.
“Unknown Claims” means any of the Released Claims that any Settlement Class Member, including Plaintiff, does not know or suspect to exist in his/her favor at the time of the release of the Released Parties that, if known by him or her, might have affected his or her settlement with, and release of, the Released Parties, or might have affected his or her decision not to object to and/or to participate in this Settlement Agreement. With respect to any and all Released Claims, including the Unknown Claims, the Settling Parties stipulate and agree that upon the Effective Date, Plaintiff intends to and expressly shall have, and each of the other Settlement Class Members intend to and shall be deemed to have, and by operation of the Judgment shall have, waived the provisions, rights, and benefits conferred by California Civil Code § 1542, and all provisions, rights, and benefits conferred by any law of any state, province, or territory of the United States (including, without limitation, California Civil Code §§ 1798.80 et seq., Montana Code Ann. § 28-1-1602; North Dakota Cent. Code § 9-13-02; and South Dakota Codified Laws § 20-7-11), which is similar, comparable, or equivalent to California Civil Code § 1542, which provides:
A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS THAT THE CREDITOR OR RELEASING PARTY DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS OR HER FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, AND THAT, IF KNOWN BY HIM OR HER, WOULD HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS OR HER SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR OR RELEASED PARTY.
Settlement Class Members, including Plaintiff, may hereafter discover facts in addition to, or different from, those that they, and any of them, now know or believe to be true with respect to the subject matter of the Released Claims, but Plaintiff expressly shall have, and each other Settlement Class Member shall be deemed to have, and by operation of the Judgment shall have, upon the Effective Date, fully, finally and forever settled and released any and all Released Claims. The Settling Parties acknowledge, and Settlement Class Members shall be deemed by operation of the Judgment to have acknowledged, that the foregoing waiver is a material element of the Settlement Agreement of which this release is a part. More information is provided in the Settlement Agreement available HERE.
HOW TO GET SETTLEMENT BENEFITS – SUBMITTING A CLAIM FORM
You must complete and submit a Claim Form by February 11, 2025. Claim Forms may be submitted online HERE or downloaded HERE and mailed to the Settlement Administrator at the address on the form. Claim Forms are also available by calling 1-800-681-7107 or by writing to the Settlement Administrator via mail or email:
Pope Data Breach Settlement
c/o Atticus Administration
Attn: Claim Form Request
PO Box 64053
St. Paul, MN 55164
PopeDataSettlement@atticusadmin.com
If you receive a Notice by mail, you can complete and return the Claim Form sent with the Notice if you are seeking Credit Monitoring and/or Reimbursement for lost time spent. If you are seeking reimbursement for documented ordinary out-of-pocket expenses or extraordinary losses, use the Claimant ID number provided on the front of your Notice to file your Claim Form online. If you believe you are a Settlement Class Member, but do not know your Claimant ID number, you may email the Settlement Administrator for assistance.
If your contact or payment information changes after you submit a Claim Form, it is your responsibility to provide your updated information to the Settlement Administrator. You may notify the Settlement Administrator of any changes in writing by mail or email:
Pope Data Breach Settlement
c/o Atticus Administration
Attn: Claim Form Request
PO Box 64053
St. Paul, MN 55164
PopeDataSettlement@atticusadmin.com
If you submit a valid and timely Claim Form requesting for credit monitoring protections, the Settlement Administrator will send you information on how to activate your credit monitoring after the Settlement becomes Final. Payments for valid and timely Claim Forms that are approved will be issued by the Settlement Administrator after the Settlement is approved and becomes Final. Payments will be issued via the payment method selected on the Claim Form.
We do not know how long it may take the Court to approve the Settlement as Final, and whether any appeals will be filed. Please be patient and check HERE for updates.
THE LAWYERS REPRESENTING YOU
The Parties did not discuss the payment of Attorneys’ Fees, Costs, Expenses and/or Service Award to Plaintiff until after the substantive terms of the Settlement had been agreed upon, other than that Benson Health would not object to a request for reasonable Attorneys’ Fees, Costs, Expenses, and a Service Award to Plaintiff as may be ordered by the Court. Benson Health and Class Counsel then negotiated and agreed to the following:
~ Benson Health has agreed not to object to a request by Class Counsel for Attorneys’ Fees, inclusive of any costs and expenses of the Litigation in an amount not to exceed $115,000.
~ Benson Health has agreed not to object to a request for a Service Award in the amount of $2,500 to named Plaintiff.
These payments are subject to Court approval and will not in any way reduce the Settlement benefits being made available to the Settlement Class.
EXCLUDING YOURSELF FROM THE SETTLEMENT
In order to validly be excluded from the Settlement, Settlement Class Members must send a letter to the Settlement Administrator, so it is mailed with a postmark date no later than January 27, 2025.
The letter must clearly state that the Settlement Class Member wants to be excluded from the Settlement (“opt-out”) in the Benson Area Medical Center, Inc. a/k/a Benson Health litigation,Case No. 22CVS002873-500 , pending in the North Carolina Superior Court, and must include his or her name, address, and signature. If the opt-out is untimely or otherwise fails to comply with any of the provisions for a valid opt-out, it shall not be considered a valid opt-out.
Pope Data Breach Settlement
c/o Atticus Administration
Attn: Exclusion Requests
PO Box 64053
St. Paul, MN 55164
No. If you exclude yourself, you are telling the Court that you do not want to be part of the Settlement. You can only get credit monitoring protections or a reimbursement payment if you stay in the Settlement and submit a valid Claim Form.
No. Unless you exclude yourself, you give up any right to sue Benson Health and the other Released Parties for the claims that this Settlement resolves. You must exclude yourself from this Action to start or continue with your own lawsuit or be part of any other lawsuit against Benson Health or any of the other Released Parties. If you have a pending lawsuit, speak to your lawyer in that case immediately.
OBJECT TO OR COMMENT ON THE SETTLEMENT
If you do not like the terms of the Settlement, you can write to the Court in the form of an objection. You cannot ask the Court to order a different Settlement; the Court can only approve or reject the Settlement.
To be valid, an objection must state:
(i) The objector’s full name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address (if any);
(ii) Information identifying the objector as a Settlement Class Member, including proof that the objector is a member of the Settlement Class (e.g., copy of Notice, copy of original notice of the Data Incident);
(iii) A written statement of all grounds for the objection, accompanied by any legal support for the objection the objector believes applicable;
(iv) The identity of any and all counsel representing the objector in connection with the objection;
(v) A statement as to whether the objector and/or his or her counsel will appear at the Final Fairness Hearing; and
(vi) The objector’s signature and, if applicable, the signature of the objector’s duly authorized attorney or other duly authorized representative.
Any Settlement Class Member who fails to comply with the requirements for objecting shall waive and forfeit any and all rights he or she may have to appear separately and/or to object to the Settlement Agreement, and the Settlement Class Member shall be bound by all the terms of the Settlement Agreement and by all proceedings, orders, and any Judgment in the Litigation.
| Court | Settlement Administrator |
| Pope Data Breach Settlement Clerk of Superior Court Attn: Objection Requests 207 E Johnston St, Smithfield, NC 27577 | Pope Data Breach Settlement c/o Atticus Administration Attn: Objection Requests P.O. Box 64053 St. Paul, MN 55164-9996 |
Objecting is telling the Court you do not like something about the Settlement. You can object only if you stay in the Class (that is, do not exclude yourself). Requesting exclusion is telling the Court you do not want to be part of the Class or the Settlement. If you exclude yourself, you cannot object to the Settlement because it no longer affects you.
THE FINAL APPROVAL HEARING
The Court will hold a Final Approval Hearing, on a date to be determined, at the General Court of Justice, Superior Court Divisions for the State of North Carolina in and for Johnston County.
The date and time of the Final Approval Hearing is subject to change without further notice to the Settlement Class, so please monitor the Settlement Website to confirm whether the date for the Final Approval Hearing has changed.
At this hearing, the Court will consider whether the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate, and will decide whether to approve the Settlement, Class Counsel’s application for Attorneys’ Fees, Costs and Expenses, and the Service Award to the Plaintiff. If there are objections, the Court will consider them. The Court will also listen to people who have asked to speak at the hearing.
No. Class Counsel will answer any questions the Court may have. However, you are welcome to attend at your own expense. If you send an objection, you do not have to come to Court to talk about it. As long as your written objection is complete and submitted on time, the Court will consider it.
Yes. If you wish to attend and speak at the Final Approval Hearing, you must indicate this in your written objection (see Question 22). Your objection must state that it is your intention to appear at the Final Approval Hearing and must identify any witnesses you may call to testify or exhibits you intend to introduce into evidence at the Final Approval Hearing. If you plan to have your attorney speak for you at the Final Approval Hearing, your objection must also include your attorney’s name, address, and phone number.
IF YOU DO NOTHING
If you are a Settlement Class Member and you do nothing, you will not receive any Settlement benefits. You will also give up certain rights, including your right to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against Benson Health or any of the other Released Parties about the legal issues in this Action and released by the Settlement Agreement.
GETTING MORE INFORMATION
The Notice summarizes the proposed Settlement. For the precise terms and conditions of the Settlement, please see the Settlement Agreement available HERE. If you have questions about the proposed Settlement or anything in the Notice, you may contact the Settlement Administrator:
Pope Data Breach Settlement
c/o Atticus Administration
PO Box 64053
St. Paul, MN 55164-9996
Email: PopeDataSettlement@atticusadmin.com
Toll-Free: 1-800-681-7107