The question of whether an insurer has a duty to investigate the legitimacy of evidence submitted by a spurned intimate acquaintance was presented in the recently decided case of Truitt v. Unum Life Ins. Co. of Amer., 2013 U.S.App.LEXIS 18639 (5th Cir. Sept. 6, 2013). The plaintiff, Terri Truitt, had worked as an attorney in […]
The question of why group long-term disability insurance policies are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was recently answered in Gross v. Sun Life Assur. Co. of Canada, 2013 U.S.App.LEXIS 17059 (1st Cir. Aug. 16, 2013). That case involved Diahann Gross, an optician who became disabled in 2006 due to complex regional […]
Although the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor, 133 S.Ct. 2675 (2013), invalidated Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that stipulated a marriage may only be between one man and one woman, the ruling left unresolved a number of critical issues.
Although the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) clearly delineates the parties who have standing to sue to redress a claimed wrongful benefit denial (employee benefit plan participants and beneficiaries – 29 U.S.C. Section 1132(a)(1)(B)), the statute is silent as to whether insurers that both underwrite and fund employer-sponsored benefits such as disability or health […]
Following market conduct investigations performed by the insurance departments of the States of California, Maine, and several other jurisdictions, in May 2013, the CIGNA companies that administer long-term disability insurance benefits (Life Insurance Company of North America, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, CIGNA Life and Health Insurance Company, and other affiliated companies) entered into a […]
On July 26, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a ruling in Larson v. United Healthcare Insur.Co., No. 12-1256 click here permitting ERISA plaintiffs to sue insurance companies that underwrite and are responsible for paying benefits when claims are asserted that benefits have been wrongfully denied. This ruling marks a […]