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Goot v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County11/9/2005
ater discovered that they would have received a much larger death benefit had their deceased spouse qualified for the waiver of premium benefit within two years after being found eligible for a disability pension. Two of the surviving spouses, Ms. Goot and Ms. Jackson, attribute their former husbands' failure to qualify for the benefit to their ignorance of the benefit because employees of the Metropolitan Government had not provided their husbands with timely information about this benefit.
Two other spouses, Ms. Duke and Ms. Taylor, assert that their former husbands did not qualify for the waiver of premium benefit because employees of the Metropolitan Government provided them with false information regarding their eligibility. Ms. Duke asserts that her husband inquired about the waiver of premium benefit and was told that he was not eligible for the benefit because he was in the wrong department. Ms. Taylor asserts that her husband applied for the benefit after he had been disabled for one year but that he was told that his application was too late.
The remaining spouse, Mr. Reese, concedes that his wife received two documents explaining the waiver of premium benefit when she qualified for a disability retirement in 1996 and that she did not apply for the benefit within two years after she became eligible for disability payments. He also concedes that her July 1999 application for the benefit was turned down because it was too late. However, he asserts that the Metropolitan Government should have given his wife another chance in 2000 to apply for the benefit after Aetna Life Insurance Company suggested to the Metropolitan Government that it offer a one-time grace period to permit disabled employees who had not requested the waiver of premium benefit to submit their applications.
On July 18, 2001, Mmes. Goot, Taylor, and Duke filed a complaint in the Chancery Court for Davidson County seeking to recover the death benefit they would have received had their husbands qualified for the waiver of premium benefit. They alleged that they were third-party beneficiaries of their husbands' group life insurance contracts and that the Metropolitan Government had breached its contractual and fiduciary duties to their husbands "by concealing and failing to inform Plaintiffs of contract provisions that inure to their benefit . . . and by intentionally lying to the Plaintiffs to the detriment of the Plaintiffs and to the benefit of the insurance companies . . . ."
Mr. Reece, represented by the same attorney who was representing Mmes. Goot, Taylor, and Duke, filed his complaint in the Chancery Court for Davidson County on July, 30, 2001 seeking the death benefit he would have received had his wife qualified for the waiver of premium benefit. He too alleged that he was a third-party beneficiary of his wife's group life insurance contract and that the Metropolitan Government had breached its contractual and fiduciary duties by failing to notify either his wife or him of Aetna Life Insurance Company's July 20, 2000 proposal for the grace period. Like Mmes. Goot, Taylor, and Duke, Mr. Reese accused the employees of the Metropolitan Government of "concealing and failing to inform" and of "intentionally lying."
On December 7, 2001, the Chancery Court for Davidson County transferred the complaint filed by Mmes. Goot, Taylor, and Duke to the Circuit Court for Davidson County. On December 21, 2001, Ms. Jackson, represented by the same attorney who was representing the other four surviving spouses, filed her complaint in the Circuit Court for Davidson County. She asserted that the Metropolitan Government had breached its fiduciary duties and its employment contract with her husband
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