PHILADELPHIA — A former Lowes employee is suing the company's welfare plan and an insurance company for allegedly wrongfully withholding his disability payments.
Russell Stover filed a lawsuit on March 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Lowes Companies Inc., Welfare Plan 512, and Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston, citing alleged violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
According to the complaint, Stover was a full-time employee of the defendant and actively engaged in employment until Feb. 6, 2011. At that time, the suit says, he stopped working due to multiple alleged medical conditions including post-cervical fusion, cervical spondylosis, and lumber disc herniation.
The plaintiff applied and was approved for short-term benefits from Feb. 7, 2011, through May 7, 2011, the claim says. His long-term benefits began on May 8, 2011, and were paid through April 7, 2014, for the aforementioned medical issues, under different occupation definitions, according to the suit. Stover claims that Liberty Life issued its first detail of benefits by a letter dated April 29, 2014, based on a claim that they had not received medical records from Stover’s treating physician. The plaintiff avers that he submitted an appeal but was denied a second and third time in violation of his rights under the ERISA.
Stover seeks disability payments, pre-judgment interest, a declaration of his ERISA plan rights, attorney fees, and cost of the suit. He is represented by Joseph P. McDonald of McDonald & McDonald Co. LPA, in Dayton, Ohio.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern of Pennsylvania Case number 2:16-cv-01312-GAM