Unum Owes Trademark Lawyer Disability Pay After Cancer Diagnosis

A Minneapolis trademark lawyer who was diagnosed with breast cancer won a court order requiring Unum Life Insurance Co. of America to reinstate her long-term disability benefits and pay her past-due amounts and attorneys’ fees.

Unum concluded that the lawyer was no longer disabled based on her cancer diagnosis without appropriately grappling with whether her other conditions, including cognitive impairments and frequent dizziness, were disabling, Judge John R. Tunheim said Monday. The insurer also overstated the amount of part-time work she was capable of performing, and it said she was engaged in homeschooling her daughter when she was actually “reminding ...