Covid ‘Long Hauler’ Sues After Denial of Long-Term Disability

A software sales executive who contracted Covid-19 in 2020 sued Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co. for disability benefits, telling a federal judge in California that she’s unable to work because of post-Covid symptoms including asthma, chronic cough, and “brain fog.”

The complaint, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, is one of the first federal lawsuits seeking disability benefits based solely on post-Covid ailments under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Attorneys expect to see more of these cases in the future, but deadline extensions from the Labor Department, difficulty in obtaining medical records, and increased telework has drawn out the already lengthy internal appeals process beneficiaries must go through with an insurer before they can take their case to court, according to a 2021 Bloomberg Law report.

The executive says she’s been disabled since September 2020, when she contracted an “aggressive course” of Covid that required “near ICU level care” and kept her on oxygen and steroids for months. Since then, she’s suffered from multiple post-Covid issues, including cognitive dysfunction, profound fatigue, balance difficulties, incontinence, and “relentless asthma and chronic cough that did not exist prior to this illness,” according to the complaint.

The executive, Wendy Haut, says she’s unable to work or complete daily living activities like grocery shopping and paying bills, and that her doctor describes her as “a post-COVID long hauler.” Reliance Standard should have been paying her long-term disability benefits beginning in March 2021, she says. The insurer denied the claim in May and later denied Haut’s appeal and said her administrative remedies had been exhausted, the complaint says.

Causes of Action: Benefits due under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Relief: Award of benefits, order on entitlement to ongoing benefits, and attorneys’ fees.

Response: A spokesman for Reliance Standard declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a policy against discussing active litigation.

Attorneys: Donahue & Horrow LLP represent Haut.

The case is Haut v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., C.D. Cal., No. 2:22-cv-00237, complaint 1/11/22.