Insurance – LTD benefits – Video surveillance

By New England In-House Staff
Posted: 6:04 pm Tue, January 24, 2012
TAGS: Jan. 30 2012 issue

A judgment upholding a plan administrator’s termination of long-term disability benefits must be vacated, as substantial evidence was lacking to support the administrator’s finding that the employee was not totally disabled despite covert surveillance video showing her driving, walking, jogging, bending over, flying a kite and lifting her 3-year-old child.

Maher v. Massachusetts General Hospital Long Term Disability Plan (Lawyers Weekly No. 01-320-11) (46 pages) (Boudin, J.) (Lipez, J., dissenting) (1st Circuit) Appealed from a decision by Zobel, J., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Robert J. Rosati, with whom ERISA Law Group was on brief, for the plaintiff-appellant; Laurie F. Rubin, with whom Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye was on brief, for the defendant-appellee (Docket No. 10-1321) (Dec. 7, 2011).