Cigna Affiliate Owes Fees After ‘Blameworthy’ Benefit Denial

Life Insurance Co. of North America was “about as culpable as it otherwise could get” in denying disability benefits to a woman with chronic pain, according to a Sixth Circuit opinion forcing the Cigna-owned insurer to pay the woman’s attorneys’ fees.

LINA repeatedly discounted evidence of Kimberly Guest-Marcotte’s disability without physically examining her and engaged in unfair “goal-post-moving” in the course of handling her benefits claim, a split panel of Sixth Circuit judges held April 1. The panel ordered LINA to pay Guest-Marcotte’s attorneys’ fees, saying the insurer’s bad behavior warranted the “rare” step of reversing a district judge’s decision ...