DeChant v. Monarch Life Insurance

The jury found that Monarch Life Insurance Company acted in bad faith when it terminated Keric T. DeChant's total disability benefits. It awarded compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney's fees totaling over $2.5 million. Below we primarily address Monarch's claim that the trial court erred in law when it found that Monarch had "repudiated" the policy and thus it had the discretionary authority to give DeChant a present value, lump-sum distribution of his lifetime disability payments. The court rejected Monarch's argument that DeChant was only entitled to a judgment requiring…