Mills v. Unum Life Insur. Co., 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 30484 (10^th Cir. Nov. 23, 1999) (unpublished)-Plaintiff Patsy Mills, the surviving spouse of Ramon H. Mills, brought this action under ERISA, seeking disability benefits under the long term disability (LTD) plan supplied by Mr. Mills’ employer, Cain's Coffee Company. Plaintiff sued Nestle USA, Inc., which owned Cain's until December 4, 1992, and UNUM Life Insurance Company of America, the LTD insurer for Nestle and certain of its affiliates. This court affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of defendants.

Mr. Mills was diagnosed in 1986 with leukemia; his condition worsened in the 1992 when he developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. As of January 1, 1992, Mr. Mills was on "Inactive Status - Medical Leave" and the Social Security Administration deemed Mr. Mills disabled as of October 1, 1992. In her complaint, plaintiff claimed her husband was covered under Cain's and/or Nestlé’s LTD plan when he became disabled in 1992, he was entitled to LTD benefits, he made a demand for such benefits, and defendants refused to pay him these benefits.

In their motion for summary judgment, defendants argued that Mr. Mills was not covered under either Nestlé’s LTD plan in 1992 or the LTD Plan offered by Nestle through UNUM as of January 1, 1993, since Mr. Mills did not pay LTD insurance premiums in 1992, nor did UNUM offer employees of Cain's any LTD benefits in 1992. This court found that Mrs. Mills’ assertions that her husband did pay premiums in 1992 were unsupported by evidence. Furthermore, this court found that plaintiff counsel's failure to dismiss UNUM as a defendant after March 3, 1998, (when a deposition made it clear that UNUM had not denied a valid claim ) was objectively unreasonable conduct that justified the district court's imposition of attorney's fees.