Allen L. Hardester, Jr. Barbara Hardester v. The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Administrator Employers Health Insurance Company

According to Dr. Phillips-Seitz, “we were lucky to have found this elongated ropey mass ... because otherwise we wouldn’t have noticed the cancer.” Today the majority turns Mrs. Hardester’s luck into the insurance companies’. There are times when the law compels such an unjust result, but not this time. I dissent.

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Plaintiff Barbara Hardester was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease in 1982. This “disease” is wholly benign, and is common in women in their thirties and forties. A woman suffering from fibrocystic disease will develop cysts, masses, and other accumulations of fibrous tissue…