People v. Home Insurance Co.
Colorado Supreme Court, En Banc
591 P.2d 1036 (1979)
Home Insurance Company (defendant) hired an investigative service that obtained a verbatim phone reading of two claimants' confidential medical reports from a hospital, later transcribing and sending the information to Home Insurance, though the actual physical medical records never left the hospital's file room; Home Insurance was charged with theft under Colorado's theft statute, and the trial court dismissed the charges at the close of the prosecution's case, reasoning the medical information obtained did not qualify as a "thing of value." The prosecution appealed.
Whether an individual's confidential personal medical information, obtained through improper means without physically removing any records, constitutes a "thing of value" for purposes of the state's theft statute.