Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Denise J. Child v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 24-2347 · judgment May 11, 2026
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
Whether, under Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, a federal court sitting in diversity may displace Iowa’s National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)-modeled statutory and regulatory prohibition against postclaims underwriting, which exempts guaranteed-issue coverage from health inquiry at issuance and bars an insurer from performing that omitted inquiry at claim time — by applying a judgemade known-loss doctrine to permit a healthcondition determination made only at claim time to support a claim denial.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Steven Michael Dunn
Steven M. Dunn. PA
For respondent
Michael William Thrall
Nyemaster Goode, P.C.
Case
Subject area
Economic Activity (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Order
Order list, October 13, 2026 · Certiorari denied
Proceedings
- Oct 13 2026Petition DENIED.
- Sep 23 2026DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/9/2026.
- Sep 16 2026Waiver of right of respondent Unum Life Insurance Co. to respond filed.
- Sep 09 2026Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 14, 2026)