AEGiS-PRn: Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Vindicates Jackson National Life Insurance Company In Deramus Case

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Vindicates Jackson National Life Insurance Company In Deramus Case

PR Newswire, 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019 -

LANSING, Mich., Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Jackson National Life is pleased to report that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has issued a ruling vindicating Jackson National's position in the suit filed by Jody Deramus. Mrs. Deramus brought suit against Jackson National in 1992, accusing it of breaching an alleged legal duty by refusing to report the results of a 1988 blood test finding Mr. Deramus to be HIV-positive. Jackson National was forced to take the position that it had no legal duty to provide the information. We are pleased that the Federal District Court, and now the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, have agreed that Jackson National has no liability as a matter of law.

Last week, Jackson National was the subject of a significant amount of press and media activity brought about by certain factual missstatements in this case.

We are delighted that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has reaffirmed the lower court's decision and supported JNL's position in the suit.

It is important to note, however, and we would like to emphasize that Jackson National's employees repeatedly testified that there were no records of any requests from Mr. Deramus for the test results until the 1991 request to which we responded; if a request had been received in 1988, we would have responded to it even though the law does not require it, as the Court of Appeals has just ruled. It is also important to note that since 1993 we have been affirmatively notifying an applicant's treating physician of an HIV- positive blood test result, again although the law does not require it.

CONTACT: Alan C. Hahn of Jackson National Life, 517-887-5354/

Keywords: HIV

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