Life insurance co., which used couple's baby for its ads, later denies the widower's claim

[brentspeak]

Young widower pushes for change in Mass. life insurance law
Saturday May 10, 1:35 pm ET
By Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Widower seeks change in Mass. law after life insurance claim denied in young wife's death

ASHLAND, Mass. (AP) -- When Jenny and John Crowley learned they were having a baby, they did the responsible thing: they bought life insurance.

Barely in their 30s, they passed the insurance company's physicals, applied for a $500,000 policy for Jenny and a $1 million policy for John, and thought they wouldn't have to worry about it for decades.

The Savings Bank Life Insurance Co. of Massachusetts was so taken with the Crowleys, the company used a photograph of their newborn daughter swaddled in a yellow blanket on the cover of one of its brochures.

Just one year later, Jenny was dead of an aggressive form of breast cancer, and when John tried to start his life anew as a single father, SBLI rejected his claim for it to pay his wife's policy. The company claimed that even though doctors said Jenny was healthy, she must have been sick before they agreed to insure her.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080510/widower_vs_insurer.html

[Deja Q]

1. Yet their own doctors said she was healthy as a pickle.

How many lawyers WON'T want to take on this case? (One?)

[Selatius]

2. Insurance companies, like many other corporations, exist to make a profit. First and foremost.

The service or product they provide is incidental to the ultimate goal of enriching shareholder value. With that said, it's not surprising that one way insurance corporations lower costs to maximize profits is to deny the claims of policyholders.

If the doctors certified her as healthy when she signed the plan and those doctors were approved by the insurance company to perform the physical, I cannot see why they should deny her claim. This would have to be taken to court.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. They settled with the widower

There's no going to court. It's over. Read the article.