Illinois Plaintiff Sues Insurance Carrier Over Denial of Benefits

Benton, ILA Long term denied disability lawsuit has been filed in the Southern District of Illinois by a woman who claims her LTD provider abruptly stopped her long-term disability benefits without just cause.

The plaintiff in the Wrongly Denied Disability Claims lawsuit is Kathy L. Moore. According to the Madison County Record (2/3/16), Moore had been employed at Global Brass & Copper Inc., located in East Alton as a metals inspector and packer. As a full-time employee, Moore was covered for long-term disability benefits under the group insurance plan her employer carried with Life Insurance Company of North America.

According to the lawsuit, Moore was forced to stop work at some point prior to December 2011 due to various health issues including, but not limited to, hypertension, diabetes, multiple abdominal surgeries and an overall regressive, degenerative state of health.

Moore began receiving long-term disability benefits December 15, 2011 and collected them for a period of two years.

That all changed on December 19, 2013 when Moore received a communiqué from Life Insurance Company of North America, informing the plaintiff that her benefits were being terminated as of December 14 that year - almost exactly two years to the day that benefits were originally extended to the plaintiff. There was no warning or lead-in to the cancellation of benefits: payments were stopped abruptly upon issuance of the letter.

Moore appealed the following month, in January 2014. That appeal took a year, before the defendant informed Moore, on January 6 of last year, that the decision to halt benefits had been upheld.

Moore, in her bad faith insurance lawsuit, claims that Life Insurance Company of North America all but ignored the various diagnoses and learned medical opinions submitted by her own medical team and instead relied exclusively on the opinions of hired consultants, who failed to review the evidence as a whole, or so it is alleged.

Moore asserts in her Long term disability fraud insurance lawsuit that her situation fully meets the definition of disability under the language and definition of the LTD plan, and that the defendant’s denial of benefits is abject abuse of discretion.

The plaintiff seeks reinstatement of full benefits, together with overdue payments owed, attorney’s fees and court costs.

The case is Kathy L. Moore v. Life Insurance Company of North America, Case No. 3:2016-cv-00118, filed February 1 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.