Lincoln National Defeats Benefits Bid Over Cancer Patient’s Fall

Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. properly denied accidental death benefits to the widow of a pancreatic cancer patient who died after hitting his head during a fall, the Eighth Circuit ruled Monday.

The insurer reasonably concluded that the man’s death wasn’t sufficiently accidental under the terms of his policy because it was partially caused by the blood thinner he was taking in connection with his cancer treatments, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held. His ultimate cause of death—bleeding in the brain—was both more likely to occur and more likely to be lethal because he was ...