CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., April 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- This week, a
California judge reduced by 83 percent the original punitive damages awarded
in Randall Chapman v. UnumProvident, confirming UnumProvident's view that the
facts of that case did not support the original verdict. The Chapman ruling
also confirms that an initial verdict is not always the final result, as
initial damages may bear no justified relationship to the value of the policy
being litigated.
In another matter, Joanne Ceimo v. General American Life Insurance
Company, Paul Revere Life Insurance Company, and Provident Life & Accident
Company, a jury in Federal District Court in Arizona found against
UnumProvident and awarded the plaintiff bad faith damages and punitive
damages.
UnumProvident strongly disagrees with the Ceimo verdict and will
immediately pursue an appeal. The company feels that the judgment is
unsupported and that there were numerous evidentiary errors made during the
course of the trial, especially the introduction of documents into evidence,
some of which were not even created, authored or approved by UnumProvident
employees or by employees of any of UnumProvident's predecessor companies.
These documents had no connection to the Ceimo claim and almost all were
created before the claim was even filed. It is UnumProvident's view that these
and similar documents were used to distract the jurors' attention from the
actual handling of the Ceimo claim.
Ceimo's policy allowed for residual disability benefits based on the
income she lost from her inability to perform invasive procedures. In March
1998, the company concluded that she was not eligible to receive residual
disability benefits as she was never able to demonstrate a 20 percent loss of
income due solely to disability.
As the leading provider of income protection insurance*, UnumProvident is
committed to the fair and timely evaluation of all claims. UnumProvident paid
more than $3.7 billion in disability benefits in 2002 to help hundreds of
thousands of families throughout North America.
About UnumProvident Corporation
The subsidiaries of UnumProvident Corporation (NYSE: UNM) offer a
comprehensive, integrated portfolio of products and services backed by
industry-leading return-to-work resources and disability expertise.
UnumProvident is the leader* in income protection, providing insurance and
services to individuals, both directly and through their employers.
UnumProvident has more than 100 years of experience in creating innovative
solutions that protect the rewards of work: paychecks, assets and lifestyles.
UnumProvident was named one of Fortune's top ten most admired insurance
companies**. UnumProvident Corporation has operations in the United States,
Canada, the U.K., Japan, and elsewhere around the world. Company headquarters
is in Chattanooga, Tenn., with significant U.S. operations in Portland, Maine;
Worcester, Mass.; and Glendale, Calif. For more information, visit our Web
site: www.unumprovident.com .
* UnumProvident represents multiple insuring subsidiaries of UnumProvident
Corporation, including the #1 individual and group income protection carriers
in the U.S., according to the JHA U.S. 2001 Group and Individual Disability
Market Surveys, 2002.
** "America's Most Admired Companies." Fortune magazine, March 3, 2003.
SOURCE UnumProvident Corporation
-0- 04/04/2003
/CONTACT: Tom White, Vice President of Investor Relations,
+1-423-755-8996, or Linnea Olsen, Director of Corporate Relations,
+1-207-575-4452, both of UnumProvident Corporation/
/Web site: http://www.unumprovident.com /
(UNM)
CO: UnumProvident Corporation
ST: Tennessee, California
IN: FIN INS
SU: LAW
JD-JB
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2708 04/04/200314:20 ESThttp://www.prnewswire.com