Federal Court Decision Among the First to Allow a Data Breach Liability Claim to Proceed Under Common Law Bailment Theory Data breach lawsuits have often struggled to match up the unique realities of data breaches with traditional theories of legal liability. A recent decision from the Southern District of Indiana, however, cut through these issues by allowing a class action claim to proceed on a theory of liability often proposed by commentators as a solution to the data breach liability conundrum but until recently almost uniformly rejected by courts: the common law theory of bailment.