PORTLAND (AP) – A judge has ordered Unum Life Insurance Co. and UnumProvident Corp. to pay a woman $100,000 plus interest and attorney’s fees for failing to pay out on her disability policy.

Lillian Curtin sued Unum after the company denied her claim under an accidental death and dismemberment policy, despite her doctor certifying her as permanently disabled and unemployable following a car accident.

Unum said their doctors found Curtin to be employable at a 40-hour a week sedentary job and denied her claim.

But Chief U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal said in a judgment filed Jan. 12 that Unum was wrong and granted Curtin’s motion for a summary judgment in her favor.

Singal said Unum disregarded a conversation between a Unum nurse and Curtin’s physician Dr. Leo Troy, in which Troy stated “she can not even sit for more than 10-15 minutes at a time, she uses a cane and cannot walk over 10 minutes.”

In 1997 Curtin sustained serious injuries in a car crash including fractures in both legs, a fractured pelvis, a transected aorta, and other major internal organ damage. She spent a month in the hospital and three months at an inpatient rehabilitation center.

Unum received Curtin’s claim for disability benefits in April 2001. They did not review the case until September 2001, and in December of that year denied her claim.

AP-ES-01-15-04 1639EST

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