Unum Wins $100,000 Benefits Appeal Over Reckless Driving Death

Unum Life Insurance Co. of America convinced the Sixth Circuit to reverse a decision forcing it to pay $100,000 in accidental death benefits to the mother of a man who died in a single-car accident while driving recklessly.

Unum properly denied accidental death benefits based on a policy exclusion for deaths stemming from the “commission of a crime,” the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said. Reckless driving is a crime in 48 states, and the conduct at issue in this case—driving between 80 and 100 miles per hour while attempting to pass multiple cars—would “constitute a crime ...