Lawsuit refiled against Davidson Companies

By The Associated Press - 05/18/2008

BILLINGS (AP) — Attorneys have refiled a lawsuit against a Great Falls financial services company that they say failed to protect client information.

Billings Attorney John Heenan initially filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against Davidson Companies but withdrew the case. He and Helena attorney Steven Haddon filed the second lawsuit in Yellowstone District Court on behalf of five investors.

Heenan said the original lawsuit was withdrawn because he wanted to bring the case in local courts and have the it heard under Montana’s constitution and the Montana Consumer Protection Act.

No one at Davidson headquarters was available to comment Friday.

The company sent letters to clients in January after a computer hacker broke into a database and obtained the names and Social Security numbers of about 226,000 clients.

Heenan said the company failed to protect confidential personal and financial information and was negligent for not maintaining adequate computer security. The company has said it wasn’t aware of any incidents of identity theft as a result of the security breach.

The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit include George Sheckleton of Billings, his wife, Olivia Sheckleton, Jason Pinter of Billings, Stephanie Erving of Helena and Gary Klotz of Shelby.