You have a history of asthma. You are not, however, impaired by this condition. Aside from periodic visits to a doctor for prescription refills, you have not sought treatment for your asthma for more than 4 years. Based on these facts, it is not unreasonable for you to believe you are in good health, without any physical impairment or disease currently affecting your health. You were not asked if you had any specific health conditions, nor were you asked to list any conditions you may have. In fact, you weren’t asked any questions. You were simply presented a statement of medical opinion and asked to sign if you thought it accurately applied to you. In your opinion it did, so you signed it.

You subsequently die as a result of a fatal asthmatic reaction to a drug prescribed by your dentist during root canal treatments. Your widow files a claim with the insurance company seeking the death benefit. After the claim is filed, the insurance company initiates an underwriting investigation. When the company discovers that you had asthma, the claim is denied on the grounds that the statement to which you certified on the application was a misrepresentation. The insurance company claims that if you had indicated on the application that you suffered from asthma, it would not have issued the policy. Therefore, it cancels the policy and does not pay the death benefit to your widow.

Your widow sues the insurance company. At trial, testimony of the insurance company underwriter shows that the company had no written underwriting policy relating to asthma and that the underwriter knew of no applications for insurance rejected by the insurance company because the applicant had asthma. Therefore, there is no credible evidence to support a conclusion that the insurance company would have refused to issue the policy if it had known of your asthma condition.

The record creates a picture of an insurance company that deliberately engaged in post claim underwriting for the sole purpose of avoiding the payment of your widow’s claim, and other similar claims, and sets this up by using an application that asks for your opinion of your health instead of asking for facts about your health and physical condition. In essence, it is asking you to do the jobs of both physician and underwriter – jobs which you are not qualified to do.

If you or a relative find yourself in a situation that sounds similar to this, you should contact an attorney immediately.