KPKB Client in Good Hands In Policy Dispute

     MIAMI—A U.S. Appeals Court ruled that life insurance benefits paid beneficiaries by a major insurance company can’t be contested in Florida after the statutory time limit.

     Attorney Bruce Katzen, a Member at KPKB in Miami who represented the winning appellees, said the case was interesting because insurance companies frequently deny claims based on an expired statute of limitations. “Now, they’re saying ‘Please don’t hold us to the same standards.’" 

         The insurer had claimed that an impostor must have taken the initial medical exam for the insured because of medical record discrepancies, and asked that the $500,000 policy be voided.  But Katzen’s arguments prevailed with the three-judge, 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel.                                 

     “The fact of the matter is the insurance industry needs to do their investigation, whatever it is, within two years,” Katzen said. “That’s the law in Florida, and the 11th Circuit acknowledged that has been the law in Florida for almost a century.”