An Unum policyholder has filed an Unum claim denial lawsuit, alleging that the insurer has denied disability claims in bad faith.

Bad faith is a legal term meaning that one party in a contract has illegally avoided the obligations of their contract. In the context of insurance law, this generally means that the insurer is accused of trying to avoid paying out on a disability insurance claim.

In this Unum claim denial lawsuit, Texas resident and plaintiff Cynthia Davis has alleged that Unum is denying her legitimate disability insurance claim.

According to the text of her Unum lawsuit, Davis suffered from a brain aneurysm in October 2010. A brain aneurysm is a situation wherein the wall of a blood vessel weakens and balloons outward in one spot. This “balloon” can press against important tissue or even rupture, causing symptoms very similar to a stroke. Davis had emergency surgery to correct the damage, but afterward experienced debilitating headaches, issues with her memory, and even had trouble speaking.

Before the aneurysm, Davis worked as a field administrative services representative, going out to construction sites and monitoring their financial activities to make sure projects were being executed correctly. According to her Unum lawsuit, this required above-average data entry accuracy and speed, oral communication skills, and reasonability. In this job, she worked both with people and software.

She claims in her Unum lawsuit that she could not longer do this after her surgery, as she had trouble speaking, would frequently write letters and numbers backwards, had trouble walking, and had short term memory loss.

Unum initially approved Davis’s disability insurance claim, setting her up with short-term benefits starting in March 2011. However, in July 2011, the insurer began to review her case for long-term disability benefits.

In the course of this review, Unum stated that Davis could return to work. In response, Davis called up her former employer, a construction company and asked if she could work part time. The construction company called Unum back directly, stating that even over the phone, Davis’s memory issues were readily apparent, and that Davis became confused during the conversation. Despite this, and conflicting medical opinions, Unum ultimately declared Davis able to work

Davis’s Unum lawsuit seeks to reinstate her disability benefits from Unum, and states that the situation has an inherent conflict of interest, in the fact that Unum, the company that would be obligated to pay her if she was disabled, is the one who is making the determination that Davis is disabled.

Policyholders who may have been the victims of bad faith insurance denials often have little recourse outside of an Unum lawsuit like Davis’s.

The Unum Lawsuit is Cynthia Gail Davis v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, Case No. 5:14-cv-00685, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division.