A woman has filed a lawsuit against Unum Life Insurance Company of America and her former employer The Travel Corporation following an allegedly improper denial of disability insurance benefits.

Plaintiff Kristen S. filed her lawsuit in California federal court under ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

ERISA was responsible for setting minimum standards on various employee benefits offered by the employer, such as retirement plans, life insurance plans, disability insurance plans, and more.

Kristen states that while she was working with Travel, she became disabled on Oct. 10, 2014 within the policy’s definition of a short-term disability. She received short-term disability benefits through Jan. 1, 2015.

She also applied to receive long-term disability benefits under her plan, and Unum approved her long-term disability benefits on Jan. 2, 2015.

Plaintiff: Disability Insurance Benefits Wrongly Denied

A few months later, on May 7, 2015, Kristen received notification that her long-term disability benefits would be terminated as of that day. She promptly appealed that decision, according to the Unum lawsuit.

Despite her diagnoses of fibromyalgia, lumbosacral spine instability, rheumatoid arthritis, lumbar DDD and retrolisthesis, her claims and appeals were denied. She says was not given an independent medical evaluation or an in-person evaluation for her condition, her Unum lawsuit states.

After exhausting all of her administrative remedies with the plan, Kristen filed her disability insurance benefits lawsuit under ERISA.

The lawsuit also mentions that, “during the administrative review process, Plaintiff requested a number of highly relevant documents and items of information to which she was entitled under ERISA. Defendants repeatedly failed and refused to provide all said documents and items of information” and have continued to do so, according to Kristen’s disability insurance benefits lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that Unum terminated Kristen’s long-term disability benefits and leave without pay benefits “in order to boost its profits, and asserting improper basis for doing so, despite knowing that Plaintiff qualified for such benefits under the terms and conditions of her compensation.”

Kristen’s Unum lawsuit brings forth several causes of action against the Defendants including a claim for benefits due under ERISA, statutory damages for failure to produce documents, declaratory relief requested and recovery of benefits sought by plaintiff, as well as breach of fiduciary duty and request for injunction.

The plaintiff is seeking “long term disability benefits, life waiver of premium, collateral benefits, statutory damages, general damages, equitable relief, attorney’s fees, pre-judgment interest, and costs under the Plan.”

Specifically, in terms of equitable relief, Kristen is seeking compensation for her inability to make her mortgage payments, having to convert her home into a rental unit, having to rent less expensive housing, being unable to pay for maintenance expenses on her home, having to rent furniture, having to rent a storage facility, emotional loss and stress surrounding her lack of money and the emotional loss and stress placed on relationships with family and friends.

The Unum Unpaid Disability Insurance Benefits Lawsuit is Case No. 8:16-cv-02020 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.