If you want a prime example of why we hammer at you to read your policy before you accept it, take a look at Nunn, et al. v. Massachusetts Casualty Insurance Company, 2014 WL 684980 (2nd Cir. 2014). Although the plaintiffs, both NBA basketball referees, didn’t read their policies, the court gave them a shot at prevailing because they didn’t get the coverage they were clearly led to believe they were getting.
This opportunity was given them because of the peculiar circumstances under which they had bought their policies. The ordinary insurance policy sales pitch is nothing like the one in this case. Without this peculiar situation, Mr. Nunn and Mr. Vaden would have been out of luck.
The usual insurance policy sale is a confidential matter with the salesman and the prospect dealing one on one. There are typically no witnesses to the sales pitch. In Nunn, the salesman made his pitch at a union meeting of NBA many basketball referees at which he clearly stated several times that the supplemental policy he was selling changed the “own occupation” limit on benefits from “10 years” to “age 65”. This meant that so long as the policyholder was unable to perform the duties of an NBA referee (commonly called “own occupation” coverage) within the time frame, benefits would continue..
The actual policy delivered to the insureds clearly stated that after 60 months of “own occupation” benefits payments, benefits would continue only if the insured were unable to perform the material duties of any gainful occupation for which he is suited (commonly called “any occupation” coverage). Since both plaintiffs were then employed, the insurance company refused further benefits.
It took an experienced disability insurance attorney to even recognize that the almost infallible rule about the policy language being the law of the case had a chink in its armor.
Because of the irrefutable statements of the salesperson (a lot of people heard him) that benefit payments would continue until age 65, the Court held that under Pennsylvania law, Nunn and Vader had “reasonable expectations” that payments would continue and ordered further proceedings.
Would the salesperson’s pitch have been irrefutable if the pitch had been made one on one? If there was the slightest doubt raised about this issue, Nunn and Vader wouldn’t have stood a chance. The policy language would be the law of the case and the plaintiffs would have been tossed out of court.
Protect yourself. Read and understand your policy before you buy it.
Don’t give your insurance company a chance to “bad-bounce” your benefits.