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Kottle v. Provident Life And Accident Insurance Co.12/15/2000
This dispute involves a claim by a physician for disability insurance benefits resulting from a mental condition which prevented the physician's work as a nephrologist. The insurer disputes the trial court's view under the terms of the policy that the doctor was rendered disabled by his panic disorders, or that appropriate medical care has been sought to alleviate any disability. The plaintiff answered the insurer's appeal, claiming penalties and attorney's fees for the failure to pay the claim. Finding that the trial court did not misconstrue the policy and was not clearly wrong in its findings of fact, we affirm.
Facts
In 1975, Dr. Sheldon P. Kottle ("Dr. Kottle") acquired a disability policy from Provident Life & Accident Insurance Company ("Provident") providing, in the event of disability, payments of $6,000 per month. At the time the policy was issued, Dr. Kottle was a medical doctor, specializing and board certified in internal medicine and nephrology. In 1987, Dr. Kottle applied for a new policy, adding an additional $6,000 per month in disability coverage. The new policy provided for $12,000 per month for disability benefits, plus cost of living adjustments ("COLA"), and a waiver of premium payment upon disability.
Dr. Kottle founded a nephrology group in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1977, and practiced nephrology there from 1977 through 1991. In 1992, he and his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he joined a large nephrology group. On March 25, 1996, Dr. Kottle withdrew from the Arizona nephrology group, because of panic attacks that he claims prevented him from providing safe and appropriate care to his patients.
Dr. Kottle relates a history of panic attacks back to the 1980s. During that time, Dr. Kottle described experiencing symptoms such as shortness of breath, sweating, chest pains, and an accelerated heart rate. He sought informal medical treatment and/or advice from his colleagues regarding his symptoms. The symptoms increased over time and worsened in severity over the next decade. Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Kottle experienced attacks at unpredictable times and places. The attacks occurred while Dr. Kottle was treating patients at the hospital, while driving his car and while seeing patients at his office. At other times, the panic attacks occurred at basketball games, on airplanes, and at the dentist's office.
On a number of these occasions, co-workers and colleagues in Shreveport observed Dr. Kottle and his reaction to these symptoms. At trial, Johnnie Sandifer Marshall, a nurse who worked with Dr. Kottle in Shreveport, described three separate occassions where Dr. Kottle was choking, sweating, and experiencing an increased pulse rate. Once, Dr. Kottle left his office after seeing only a few patients. On each of these occasions, Dr. Kottle asked Marshall to drive him home.
Several physicians testified at trial about not only their personal observations of Dr. Kottle during his attacks, but also about the results of diagnostic tests performed to rule out coronary artery disease and/or heart attack. The tests did not reveal any abnormalities with Dr. Kottle's heart, nor did they reveal any other physiological cause for Dr. Kottle's symptoms.
Dr. Mark Callaway, a Shreveport urologist, testified that he worked alongside Dr. Kottle on several patients. Dr. Callaway witnessed several events involving Dr. Kottle that he described as "bizarre." Shortly after Dr. Kottle's thyroid surgery, he summoned Dr. Callaway to his home, because he thought he had a kidney stone. Dr. Callaway evaluated plaintiff, and found no typical symptoms of a kidney stone. Dr. Callaway described Dr. Kottle as
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