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Pearson-Rhoads v. Aetna – Court Rejects Treating Physician’s Opinion In Favor Of Paper Review

In Pearson-Rhoads v. Aetna Life Insurance Company, the plaintiff sued for the payment of long-term disability insurance benefits from the insurer of her ERISA governed plan, Aetna Life Insurance Company. The plaintiff made numerous arguments.  All were rejected by the court. Of particular note here is the plaintiff’s argument that Aetna abused its discretion by …

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Faciane v. Sun Life – Court Rules In Favor Of Sun Life In LTD Underpayment Case

In Faciane vs. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, the claimant received a monthly benefit for long-term disability pursuant to an ERISA-regulated group insurance policy. The group policy covered employees of Capital One Financial Corporation. He alleged that Sun Life had been underpaying him for years. The material facts of the case were not in dispute. …

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Carter v. Aetna – Court Rules Plaintiff Did Not Meet Burden Of Proof

Colon Carter (“Carter”) worked as an estimating analyst for Bath Iron Works (“BIW”), a subsidiary of General Dynamics. His job duties included “developing cost proposals for new Navy and commercial work; developing and maintaining proposal support documents and checklists; creating financial models; maintaining company baselines for all Programs; assisting management with department staffing plans; and …

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Warner v. Unum – A Claimant Friendly ERISA Federal Court Decision

The Court concluded that Warner’s motion must be granted because Unum abused its discretion in denying her claim without substantively explaining its rejection of her functional capacity evaluation and relying exclusively on the absence of objective tests confirming her subjective symptoms when denying her claim.

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Christmas v. Sun Life – Court Finds Evidence Clearly Supports Sun Life’s Decision

The case Meghan Christmas v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada was decided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut on December 13, 2018. In this case, Meghan Christmas (“Christmas”), a Manager of Global Solutions Integration for ISGN Corporation, sought long-term disability (“LTD”) benefits from Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (“Sun Life”). Between …

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Dawson v. LINA – Court Rules Plaintiff Didn’t Provide Enough Objective Evidence

Here, Chernequa Dawson (“Dawson”) worked as a Care Transition Coordination (“CTC”) Nurse Care Manager and was employed by Cigna Corporation (“Cigna”). Through her employment with Cigna, she was covered under both a short-term and long-term disability plan. For these plans, Cigna pays the short-term disability plan benefits, while Life Insurance Company of North America (“LINA”) pays for long-term …

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Cheney v. Standard – Court Rules Claimant Meets The Definition Of Disability

Case Name: Carole Cheney v. Standard Insurance Company Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Date of Decision: August 28, 2014 Type of Claim: Long-Term Disability under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) Insurance Company: Standard Insurance Company Claimant’s Employer: Kirkland & Ellis Claimant’s Occupation / Job Position: The plaintiff was a long-time attorney at Kirkland & Ellis …

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Cheney v. Standard – Court Of Appeals Reverses Favorable District Court Decision

This is an update to the previous district court decision in Cheney v. Standard. Here, the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision in favor of the Plaintiff and rules in favor of the insurance company. Case Name: Cheney v. Standard Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Date of Decision: July 27, …

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Hounihan v. Aetna – Court Rules Claimant Is Not Totally Disabled

Charlie Craig Hounihan (“Hounihan”) was a technician who was employed by Proctor and Gamble (“P&G”) on the Bounty paper towel line at a plant in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Through his employment with P&G, Hounihan was covered under both short and long-term disability benefit plans with Aetna. The Proctor & Gamble Disability Committee (“Disability Committee”) is …

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