Unum Beats Appeal of Hospital Worker’s Covid Disability Suit

Unum Life Insurance Co. of America won’t have to face a revived lawsuit over denied long-term disability benefits for a nursing assistant who contracted Covid-19, after a federal appeals court on Thursday affirmed that the insurer’s decision was both procedurally and substantively reasonable.

Brandi Goodwin failed to convince the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that a lower court wrongly sided with the insurer in her suit under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Judge Amul R. Thapar said in an opinion.

Goodwin’s 2020 illness caused her long-lasting lightheadedness, elevated heart rate, chest pain, and shortness of ...