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Class Action Says Bristol-Myers Insures Employees without Consent
By Courtney Coren
An Illinois woman is seeking class certification for her lawsuit against Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company on behalf of her deceased husband’s estate, alleging that the company held a life insurance policy in her husband’s name without his consent.
Bruce Simmons died on Aug. 16, 2012 and was a Bristol-Meyers Squibb employee at the time of his death. Gigi Simmons, the wife of Mr. Simmons, had to borrow money from a third-party financier to cover funeral costs because she had not received her husband’s life insurance benefits yet, according to her proposed class action lawsuit.
Simmons says she gave the financier the life insurance policy documents so he could verify the benefits she was to receive that her husband had taken advantage of through Bristol-Myers Squibb’s own benefits department. However, the benefits department would not verify the policy for him and she was not able to obtain the financing through the financier.
The class action lawsuit states that funeral home she was using also tried to help her out. Sam Rawls of Rawls Funeral Home also contacted Bristol-Meyers to verify her benefits. The employee he spoke to said that Mr. Simmons had a $6 million policy.
Shocked by the large amount, Rawls asked the employee more questions about the policy, but she would not disclose any more information. She added that “she probably ‘was not supposed to have said anything about it,'” the class action lawsuit alleges.
The policy amount cited by the employee is allegedly a lot more than the policy purchased by Mr. Simmons. The class action lawsuit alleges that Bristol-Myers “bought a policy of ‘corporate-owned life insurance’ to insure her husband’s life and named Bristol-Myers, or some entity that benefited Bristol-Myers, as the policy beneficiary.”
The class action lawsuit argues that the life insurance policy that Bristol-Myers held on behalf of Mr. Simmons was not valid because the company “did not have an insurable interest in Bruce Simmons’ life.”
Mrs. Simmons explained in her request for class certification that her husband “was not an officer of Bristol-Myers. He was not a member of the company’s board of directors and was not a key employee. He was not indebted to the company and was not related to Bristol-Myers by blood or marriage. Mr. Simmons was a rank-and-file employee of the company. He was never informed about any policy of corporate-owned life insurance that insured his life and he never consented to such a policy.”
Because Bristol-Myers has no insurable interest in Mr. Simmons life, the amount is being held by the company as a trustee on behalf of Mr. Simmons’ estate.
Mrs. Simmons believes that Bristol-Myers has similar policies for its other employees that would be included in the class.
She wants the court to rule that Bristol-Myers did not have an insurable interest in her husband, and she wants the money they have in his name to be paid to Mr. Simmons’ estate. Mrs. Simmons wants the same for all members of the class.
She also wants living Class Members to have the opportunity to assume the payments on such policies the company holds in their names if they would like to continue the policy and be able to name the beneficiary on that policy.
The plaintiff is represented by Michael Kanovitz of Loevy & Loevy and by Michael D. Myers of McClanahan Myers Espey LLP.
The Bristol-Myers Life Insurance Policy Class Action Lawsuit is Gigi Simmons v. Bristol Myers Squibb Co. et al., Case No. 1:13-cv-08531, in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois.
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