Article ID: 5bbb3c50377db4811521d3dab5a2b62aed6dcb3e15c5c1385b07e2602654aaed
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URL: https://www.businessinsurance.com/federal-judge-tosses-coverage-suit-over-ex-coachs-data-breach/
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Federal judge tosses coverage suit over ex-coach’s data breach - Business Insurance Skip to content Register for free Search Search Log In Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Federal judge tosses coverage suit over ex-coach’s data breach by Richard Sine Coverage Disputes , Cyber Risks , Emerging Risks , P/C Insurers , Technology The Hartford Insurance Group Inc. Aug 10, 2026 A unit of The Hartford won dismissal of a lawsuit accusing it of wrongly denying coverage to a software company facing dozens of lawsuits over a data breach tied to a former University of Michigan football coach. In Keffer Development Services, LLC v. Hartford Casualty Insurance Company , Keffer, which owns electronic medical record software called Athletic Trainer Software, sought coverage from Hartford Casualty Insurance Company for a wave of lawsuits, consolidated into multidistrict litigation in Michigan, alleging that Matthew Weiss used his access to the software to view student-athletes’ private photos and videos. The students sued Keffer along with Mr. Weiss and several universities, claiming Keffer failed to secure the platform. Mr. Weiss was indicted in 2025 on charges that he hacked into more than 100 colleges and universities and downloaded personal information on more than 150,000 athletes. He allegedly used this data to break into the social media, email or cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 athletes and download intimate photos and videos. His civil and criminal cases are still pending. Keffer, which is based in Grove City, Pennsylvania, argued Hartford’s general liability policy required the insurer to defend and indemnify it, either because the lawsuits alleged “bodily injury” or because Mr. Weiss’s intrusion into Keffer’s servers amounted to a “personal and advertising injury” under the policy. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh rejected both theories. On the bodily injury claim, Judge Stickman found that allegations of emotional distress, humiliation and “physical manifestations of stress and anxiety” fall short of Pennsylvania’s definition of bodily injury, which requires actual physical harm. The judge wrote that the underlying complaints are “devoid of facts that show any physical impact on the Weiss Plaintiffs,” since Mr. Weiss never had physical contact with the student-athletes and his alleged misconduct was directed at the software system itself. Keffer’s policy covered “mental anguish” but only “if arising from” a physical cause, according to the ruling. On the personal-and-advertising-injury claim, Judge Stickman found that even though Mr. Weiss’s alleged intrusion could count as an entry into Keffer’s “premises,” Keffer failed to show that Mr. Weiss acted on behalf of the property’s “owner, landlord or lessor,” as the policy requires. He also agreed with Hartford that a separate policy exclusion for information-disclosure claims independently barred coverage. 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