Applying California’s Total Disability Standard

Under California law, “the term ‘total disability’ does not signify an absolute state of helplessness but means such a disability as renders the insured unable to perform the substantial and material acts necessary to the prosecution of a business or occupation in the usual or customary way.  Recovery is not precluded under a total disability provision because the insured is able to perform sporadic tasks, or give attention to simple or inconsequential details incident to the conduct of business.”  Erreca v. Western States Life Ins. Co., 19 Cal.2d 388, 396 (1942).  Thus, a disability claimant may be “totally disabled” in California despite being physically capable of performing some occupational duties.  However, California courts are generally chary to find total disability if a disabled claimant continues working after filing for disability benefits, notwithstanding his physical limitations, and when the income generated from that work is substantially the same as it was before becoming disabled.

Hecht v. Paul Revere Life Ins. Co. offers a good illustration of this.  In Hecht v. Paul Revere Life Ins. Co., an executive owner of a successful retail clothing business in Southern California filed for disability benefits with his disability insurance company, Paul Revere, after a car accident resulted in his suffering from neck pain and upper and lower back pain.  Although the disability claimant was President and Owner, he involved himself with significant portions of laborious tasks such as lifting, loading and unloading merchandise and climbing ladders.  After the accident, he could no longer perform the physical labor.

The disability claimant argued he was “totally disabled” under his disability insurance policy because he could no longer perform the physical labor aspect of his work in “the usual or customary way” as he did pre-disability.  The California court agreed that he could no longer perform the physical labor; however, it concluded that such was not a “substantial and material” aspect necessary to the prosecution of his business.  In reaching this conclusion, the California court found persuasive the fact that the disabled claimant continued to work every day, notwithstanding his physical limitations, and that the income generated from his contributions to the business was substantially the same as the income pre-disability.  Applying Erreca’s “total disability” standard, the California court said:

He has proven by his own actions that he is able to perform “substantial and material acts necessary to the prosecution of a business,” that he is doing more than “sporadic tasks,” and that he is performing more than “simple or inconsequential details incident to the conduct of business.

Therefore, for the purposes of the disability insurance policy, he could not be considered “totally disabled.”

In California, what constitutes “substantial and material acts necessary to the prosecution of a business” is a fact-intensive inquiry.  In this case, the facts favored the disability insurance company because the disabled business executive was still capable of performing some occupational duties post-injury, and his participation in these occupational duties generated significant income.  When total disability cases involve disabled doctors and disabled dentists, however, they may not be so black-and-white (for an example, check out this blog post).  In part, this is because the success of doctor and dental practices depends almost exclusively on a doctor’s or dentist’s ability to perform certain physical acts, such as drilling a hole in a patient’s tooth or performing surgery; this is quite different than the physical demands required of the disability claimant in the California case above.  Additionally, injuries deemed less crippling in other fields could have a more substantial impact on medical and dental professionals whose highly specialized skills require greater precision to ensure patient safety.

Thus, even though the California standard for “total disability” is the same across the board, it applies differently to different professions.  For this reason, when you file for disability benefits, you should seek a disability insurance attorney who has experience representing clients within your own occupation.