Malcolm Wiener v. AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company

Charlotte, North Carolina insurance law lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued on a bad faith beach of insurance contract theory.



Malcolm Wiener purchased $16 million in permanent life insurance 1 from AXA

Equitable Life Insurance in the 1980s. All was uneventful until 2013, when Wiener failed

to pay premiums on time and his policy lapsed. 2 Seeking to reinstate his policy, he

authorized AXA to access his medical records for its reinstatement assessment. In 2014,

Hallie Hodgins, an AXA underwriter, assessed Wiener's health on the basis of his medical

records and denied his application after determining he had four serious medical

conditions. This determination was erroneous. AXA then spread its error by submitting

diagnosis codes representing his nonexistent medical conditions to the Medical

Information Bureau ("MIB”), a private not-for-profit consortium of about 400 insurance

companies that collectively underwrite 90–95% of life insurance in the United States. Any

MIB member who checked Wiener's MIB file would see the nonexistent medical

conditions in his file.



Rejected by AXA, Wiener asked his insurance agent, Sanford Robbins, to apply for

a $16 million life insurance policy at other insurers. All but two insurers rejected Wiener's

application outright. The remaining two made preliminary offers "for a $10 million policy

at double the standard rate—which would have cost Wiener an extra $400,000 per year.”

Wiener I, 58 F.4th at 785. Later, several representatives from the other insurers testified

that the false MIB codes in Wiener's file adversely affected his application.

Summary judgement granted.



Affirmed