Michigan woman Cynthia A. Keller filed a lawsuit against Unum Group on May 2, 2011, in the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division. She filed because she cannot appeal her disability insurance benefits case anymore and she claims that the company is in breach its obligations under ERISA to provide her with disability insurance benefits.
Keller’s lawsuit is asking for four different awards in her case, which include “injunctive and declaratory relief, requesting pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, and reimbursement for her attorneys’ fees.” Before her disabilities, Keller was a visiting nurse/hospice nurse for OP Hospital Inc. She had to stop working when she developed osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia that prevented her from being able to perform her work-related duties. According to the Dictionary of Occupation Titles (DOT), Keller’s work duties included physical demands like heavy lifting of patients, moving them and dressing them, which her conditions prevent.
Under the terms of her disability insurance policy with Unum, she was within her policy’s requirements for filing for disability insurance benefits. She applied for short-term disability benefits through Unum and Unum made her apply for Social Security Disability Benefits to help them offset the payments, which she did. Social Security approved her application in February. Keller went back to work for a period of 8 months before she found that she could no longer perform her duties and applied again through Unum. She was denied by Unum even though they knew that she was approved by Social Security before.
Keller filed the disability insurance lawsuit because she says that Unum didn’t follow its own procedures, rules and guidelines as they didn’t “give weight to the Plaintiff’s favorable Social Security disability determination” as they should have. On March 23 of this year, she received her final denial letter from Unum and she decided to sue.
This case should get interesting as time goes on. If you have been denied LTD benefits by Unum, contact attorney Greg Jones today for a free consultation. I will fight hard to help you get every dime you may be entitled to.