12/22/2009: Northridge, CA—Woman with CMT Wins Long-Term Disability Case

Standard Insurance Company Must PayLong Term Disability Benefits to Plaintiff With Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease

Kantor & Kantor, LLP achieved an important victory in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for a client suffering from the rare muscular disease Charcot-Marie-Tooth. Our client was denied disability benefits from Standard Insurance Company, which insured the disability plan of Countrywide Home Loans where she worked as a mortgage loan underwriter.

This case is significant because it is the first district court decision decided after the recent Ninth Circuit case of Montour v. Hartford Acc. & Life Ins. Co., 582 F.3d 933 (9th Cir., 2009), wherein the Ninth Circuit clarified how a trial court should review claims decision by an insurer.

In our client’s case, the district court found that Standard’s decision to deny benefits “was tainted by its financial interest” and cited the following as evidence:
• Standard neglected to advise the plaintiff of what type evidence to provide to support her claim. The federal law governing workplace disability plans, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, mandates that plan administrators tell insureds what specific information they must submit. To request mere “medical evidence” or “information you believe is relevant” does not comply with the letter of the law. The administrator must tell the claimant what information the administrator considers relevant.
• Standard used the wrong occupational criteria. This is significant because our client’s plan language included the “own occupation” criteria rather than the “any sedentary occupation” criteria Standard relied on. In our client’s case, that means she is entitled to benefits because her illness prevented her from performing the requirements of a job she held for nearly a dozen years. Whether she could work at another job was irrelevant under the terms of her plan.
• Standard denied our client’s claim without full investigation, neglecting to wait for complete answers about our client’s disability from its own medical examiners and neglecting to ask its examining physicians the necessary questions to document our client’s illness. In particular, the court found that Dr. Elias Dickerman was not adequately trained by Standard – even though he received more that $200,000 annually from Standard since 2006 for his medical diagnoses – and that he made errors in his reading of our client’s medical records.

The court determined that our client’s policy should be reinstated and awarded her all her unpaid benefits.