Trial Court Upholds $4.2 Million Verdict Obtained by Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP in Lawsuit Against Paul Revere Life Insurance Company and UNUM Group

Award for wrongful denial of disability benefits to policyholder.

2011-04-14

April 14, 2011 (Press-News.org) A Los Angeles Superior Court trial judge has rejected a motion for a new trial in a case against defendants Paul Revere Life Insurance Company and UNUM Group involving a disability insurance policy. The jury had previously found the defendants liable for bad faith and breach of an insurance disability contract before awarding $4.2 million in damages to the insured.

The plaintiff, a dental hygienist, first purchased an individual disability insurance policy from Paul Revere in 1988. After she began to suffer from several disabling medical conditions in 1996, including carpal tunnel syndrome and severe pain in her upper extremities, the plaintiff was unable to perform the repetitive motions and precise hand manipulations called for when cleaning patients' teeth.

By 1999, she could no longer work. The terms of her policy entitled her to disability benefits for the rest of her life, even if she was able to perform alternative work. But on March 31, 2008, UNUM Group abruptly stopped paying disability benefits. The plaintiff subsequently filed suit, represented by Mark T. Quigley and Ivan Puchalt with the Santa Monica, California, law firm of Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP.

The plaintiff's attorneys convinced the jury that, in terminating the benefits, UNUM Group ignored the recommendations of plaintiff's treating physician, who supported her disability and had decided not to wait for the results of an MRI test that would have supported her claim. At trial, plaintiff's attorneys provided examples of UNUM's bad faith behavior, including misuse of surveillance video and selective use of independent medical examinations.

The $4.2 million verdict includes both compensatory and punitive damages. Attorney Ivan Puchalt commented on the case: "Hopefully, UNUM heard the message sent by the Jury to cease their bad faith conduct. Only time will tell."

EDITOR'S NOTE:

The plaintiff was represented by Mark Quigley and Ivan Puchalt with the Santa Monica, CA. law firm of Greene Broillet & Wheeler (www.greene-broillet.com): Tel: 310-576-1200.

Defendant Paul Revere Life insurance Company and UNUM Group were represented by Edwin A. Oster, Barger & Wolen, LLP; Tel: 949-757-2800

Contacts
Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP
Audra Philbin
Director of Marketing
310-576-1200, ext. 215
aphilbin@greene-broillet.com

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

U.S. Justice Department Sues HSBC India for Disclosure of Accounts Held by United States Taxpayers

2011-04-14

The United States Department of Justice continues its vigorous efforts to open up foreign secret bank accounts. In its latest move, the United States Department of Justice, on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service has filed suit in San Francisco, California against HSBC India to require the disclosure of United States tax payers accounts. The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that all US tax payers meet their obligations to declare and pay taxes on foreign bank accounts. The IRS has announced that it is continuing to focus its attention on international tax evasion. The ...

Programming regret for Google

2011-04-14

Tel Aviv — Human beings are well aware that hindsight is 20/20 — and the product of this awareness is often what we call "regret." Could this hindsight be programmed into a computer to more accurately predict the future? Tel Aviv University computer researchers think so — and the Internet giant Google is anxious to know the answer, too. Prof. Yishay Mansour of Tel Aviv University's Blavatnik School of Computer Science launched his new project at the International Conference on Learning Theory in Haifa, Israel, earlier this year. His research will help computers minimize ...

Preparing for a cool life -- seasonal changes in lipid composition

2011-04-14

Animal cell membranes are a bilayer of phospholipids (charged fat molecules) made up to various degrees of fatty acids that must be acquired from the diet. The essential polyunsaturated fatty acids have been shown to be important in resistance to a variety of diseases and in coping with changes in body temperature. It is generally believed that mammals are unable to alter the proportions of essential fatty acids in their cell membranes except by changing their diets. Furthermore, mammals are unlikely candidates for extensive temperature-induced alteration, known to occur ...

New evidence that chronic ulcerative stomatitis is an autoimmune disease

2011-04-14

BOSTON (April 13, 2011) — In the first study investigating the origins of a little-known condition called chronic ulcerative stomatitis (CUS), researchers at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine provide evidence that an autoimmune response contributes to the painful oral sores that characterize the disease. The study findings support the classification of CUS as a new autoimmune disease. Chronic ulcerative stomatitis is characterized by painful, recurring sores in the mouth. Thus far, it has been diagnosed most frequently in white women in their 40's and 50's and ...

New Jersey Health Care Directives and Graduating Seniors

2011-04-14

High school graduation ceremonies are typically called "commencement" for a good reason. Life goes on after high school. The pomp and circumstances marks an end, but also a beginning. A transitional moment like this involves more than just putting on a nice reception. It is a good time for parents to review the status of their graduates' health care arrangements. This starts with making sure there is coverage under an appropriate insurance policy. But you should also realize that, once your child turns 18, you will not have the same ability to direct his or her medical ...

Women have more intense emotions than men when conflict arises within the couple

2011-04-14

This release is available in Spanish and French. Women feel their emotions more intensively than men when a conflict arises within the couple. Conversely, it is men –who mostly express "powerful emotions" as wrath or despise– who cause conflicts more frequently. This is the conclusion described in an article published in the journal Intervención Psicosocial prepared by professors from the Department of Social Psychology of the University of Granada, Inmaculada Valor Segura, Francisca Expósito y Miguel Moya. This study analyzed the type of interpersonal emotions than ...

Injectable gel could spell relief for arthritis sufferers

2011-04-14

Boston, MA - Some 25 million people in the United States alone suffer from rheumatoid arthritis or its cousin osteoarthritis, diseases characterized by often debilitating pain in the joints. Now researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) report an injectable gel that could spell the future for treating these diseases and others. Among its advantages, the gel could allow the targeted release of medicine at an affected joint, and could dispense that medicine on demand in response to enzymes associated with arthritic flare-ups. "We think that this platform could ...

Medical Malpractice: Limiting Damages vs. Addressing Errors

2011-04-14

President Obama recently acknowledged he is willing to contemplate reforms to the medical malpractice structure and look at options other than the repeal of his health care bill to bring down health care costs. He has placed medical malpractice reforms on the table in order to "rein in frivolous lawsuits," says the LA Times. Previously, House Republicans proposed legislation with a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering damages caused by "any health care goods or services or any medical product." Damage Caps vs. Addressing Medical Errors Many patients' rights advocates ...

Ultra-fast magnetic reversal observed

2011-04-14

A newly discovered magnetic phenomenon could accelerate data storage by several orders of magnitude. With a constantly growing flood of information, we are being inundated with increasing quantities of data, which we in turn want to process faster than ever. Oddly, the physical limit to the recording speed of magnetic storage media has remained largely unresearched. In experiments performed on the particle accelerator BESSY II of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Dutch researchers have now achieved ultrafast magnetic reversal and discovered a surprising phenomenon. In magnetic ...

Improvements in embryonic preimplantation genetic screening techniques

2011-04-14

A Short Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) method has been developed to carry out preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) by analysing all chromosomes and transferring selected embryos to the recipient uterus in the same in vitro fertilisation cycle. This eliminates the need to freeze them. The technique has been applied to the screening of chromosomal anomalies in cases of advanced maternal age, recurrent miscarriages or repeated implantation failures. Short-CGH achieved, as part of a PGS programme, the pregnancy of a woman whose partner is carrier of two chromosomal ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

How rice plants tell head from toe during early growth

Scientists design solar-responsive biochar that accelerates environmental cleanup

Construction of a localized immune niche via supramolecular hydrogel vaccine to elicit durable and enhanced immunity against infectious diseases

Deep learning-based discovery of tetrahydrocarbazoles as broad-spectrum antitumor agents and click-activated strategy for targeted cancer therapy

DHL-11, a novel prieurianin-type limonoid isolated from Munronia henryi, targeting IMPDH2 to inhibit triple-negative breast cancer

Discovery of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro inhibitors and RIPK1 inhibitors with synergistic antiviral efficacy in a mouse COVID-19 model

Neg-entropy is the true drug target for chronic diseases

Oxygen-boosted dual-section microneedle patch for enhanced drug penetration and improved photodynamic and anti-inflammatory therapy in psoriasis

Early TB treatment reduced deaths from sepsis among people with HIV

Palmitoylation of Tfr1 enhances platelet ferroptosis and liver injury in heat stroke

Structure-guided design of picomolar-level macrocyclic TRPC5 channel inhibitors with antidepressant activity

Therapeutic drug monitoring of biologics in inflammatory bowel disease: An evidence-based multidisciplinary guidelines

New global review reveals integrating finance, technology, and governance is key to equitable climate action

New study reveals cyanobacteria may help spread antibiotic resistance in estuarine ecosystems

Around the world, children’s cooperative behaviors and norms converge toward community-specific norms in middle childhood, Boston College researchers report