California Jury Awards $4 Million in DI Case

By Trevor Thomas

February 08, 2011 at 07:00 PM

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A Los Angeles Superior Court jury has awarded $4.2 million in damages to a disability insurance policyholder who said her insurance company had unreasonably terminated her benefits.

The plaintiff, Laura Kieffer, claimed in her lawsuit that Paul Revere Life California Insurance Company and its parent, Unum Group Corp., Chattanooga, Tenn. (NYSE:UNM), had wrongfully denied her disability benefits after she had been paying premiums on the policy for 12 years.

Kieffer, a dental hygienist, bought an individual disability insurance policy from Paul Revere in 1988. Starting in 1996, she says she developed several disabling medical conditions, including carpal tunnel syndrome and severe cervical pain, which by 1999 forced her to stop working entirely, according to her attorneys, Mark Quigley and Ivan Puchalt of Greene Broillet & Wheeler L.L.P, Santa Monica, Calif.

In March 2008, Unum terminated the plaintiff's benefits despite recommendations from the plaintiff's treating physician, according to the attorneys.

The verdict included compensatory and punitive damages.

"We are very disappointed with this verdict," a Unum representative says. "We will ask the trial court to overturn the verdict because we don't think it was supported by the evidence. If necessary, we will appeal."

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