Banking Director Wins Disability Pay for Long Covid, Fatigue

A former executive director for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. is entitled to disability benefits from First Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co. on account of her long-haul Covid and chronic fatigue, a federal judge ruled.

First Reliance abused its discretion and engaged in a “self-serving, selective review of the evidence” when it terminated the director’s benefits without any “new, meaningful evidence” supporting a change in position, Judge Georgette Castner said. The insurer pointed to a questionnaire in which the director reported doing household chores and moving without assistive devices, but it overlooked other evidence showing she needed daily naps, required help ...