Fiorentini v. Paul Revere Life Ins. Co.

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Insurance
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 17-3137
Decision Date: 
June 21, 2018
Federal District: 
N.D. Ill., E. Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-insurance company’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-insured’s action alleging that defendant wrongfully stopped making disability payments under terms of insurance policy. Record showed that defendant initially made said benefit payments after plaintiff had been diagnosed with cancer that left plaintiff with permanent hearing loss, fatigue, migraines and tinnitus. However, defendant ceased making payments in 2014 after plaintiff had been cancer free since 2009 and was working regularly as president of his company. Moreover, while plaintiff argued that he was entitled to receive said payments because he still could not perform one-on-one contacts with prospective clients, which formed important aspect of his job, Dist. Ct. could properly find that plaintiff failed to meet policy’s definition of totally disabled, since: (1) plaintiff could perform all other aspects of his job; and (2) plaintiff contradicted his claim that he could not have one-on-one contacts with prospective clients, where plaintiff admitted that he had one-on-one contacts with existing clients. Fact that plaintiff could not discharge his duties as company president in precisely same manner as he did prior to cancer diagnosis did not require different result. Also, policy had residual disability provision that potentially applied, where plaintiff could show that he had reduced capacity to do his job.