The Marshall County Commissioners got an update on a class-action lawsuit against a company who allegedly stole thousands of dollars worth of data from the recorder’s office.
County Attorney Jim Clevenger told the commissioners that the lawsuit involves Marshall County and several other counties against Black Knight Real Estate Data Solutions. Recorder Marlene Mahler previously told the commissioners that the company reportedly took 2,700 documents totaling 39,000 pages out of the computer system without going through the proper channels. The recorder’s office would normally charge $1 per page so the company would owe $39,000. The lawsuit seeking damages would triple that amount.
Mahler said improvements have been made to their computer system, so this type of activity is less likely to happen again.
The case is now pending in federal court. Clevenger told the commissioners this week that Black Knight had used a law firm that the county has used for bonding proceedings and other legal work. Clevenger was contacted by one of the attorneys from the firm ICE Miller to waive and consent to them defending Black Knight as the county did some bond work with the company. Clevenger thought at first that it wouldn’t be a problem, but then he found out that there had been some contact with ICE Miller about the case from the state association. With that, Clevenger told the commissioners he was not comfortable with the commissioners signing the waiver as it’s not known what conversation was held between the Association and ICE Miller.
The commissioners approved a decision to decline a waiver of consent for ICE Miller to represent Black Knight.
