An Alaska woman has been paid Unum long term disability benefits from her insurance company for 12 years but claims she has been recently denied payments.

Plaintiff Tina S. of Anchorage was a payroll technician until 2004. In 2004, she claims, she was forced to leave her job because of physical and mental conditions that made it impossible to continue her job.

Her Unum long term disability lawsuit claims she suffered from interstitial cystitis, cognitive functioning loss, migraine headaches, chronic pain, peripheral neuropathy, eczema, and bipolar disorder.

Because of these conditions, she claims that she could no longer meet the demands of her occupation as a payroll technician. Her Unum long term disability lawsuit states that she was determined to be totally disabled.

For twelve years she was granted disability payments from her insurance company, Unum. From 2004 to 2016, she was able to receive short term and long term disability payments under the plan administered by Unum insurance.

In September 2016, Tina claims, Unum determined that her treating physicians were “incorrect concerning her medically caused limitations, and, at age 54, with the above diagnosed conditions, she could work full time in an appropriate occupation without restrictions.”

Tina had been enrolled in a group long term disability plan which was to provide disability payments to any employee who experienced a total disability under the plan’s definition of total disability.

Tina alleges that her medical conditions made it impossible for her to return to her previous position, or to any other position. Her doctors determined that she was unable to return to work and that because of this, she qualified to receive Unum long term disability payments.

The plaintiff believes that when Unum denied her long term disability benefits in 2016 after paying them for 12 years, they decided that her conditions were not “severe” enough for her to remain out of work.

Her group Unum long term disability insurance policy states, “You are disabled when Unum determines that: you are limited from performing the material and substantial duties of your regular occupation due to sickness or injury; and you have a 20% or more loss in your indexed monthly earnings due to the same sickness or injury.”

This Unum long term disability lawsuit alleges that Unum breached its obligation under the plan when they denied Tina’s eligibility in 2016 because she met all the criteria set forth in the long term disability insurance plan.

Tina thinks that Unum “arbitrarily” and “unreasonably” relied on their own consultants’ opinions while at the same time ignoring the plaintiff’s statements and the opinions of her treating physicians. Essentially, consultants that Unum pays may have more of a motivation to find someone ineligible for long term disability payments than someone from outside the company.

The plaintiff is asking for compensatory damages, the costs of the lawsuit, attorney’s fees and any benefits she should have received after she was denied them in 2016.

This Unum Long Term Disability Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-03624-LB in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.