ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140037
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal appeals court has ruled against a widow who contends an insurance company should have told her husband that he tested positive for the AIDS virus.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a terse four-line ruling dated last Wednesday and made public Monday, affirmed a federal judge's decision that the insurance company was not legally required to release the results of the blood test.
Jody Deramus of Vienna, Va., sued Jackson National Life Insurance Co. of Mississippi after her husband, Frank, died in 1991 from AIDS-related complications.
Deramus, an attorney, took a blood test in 1988 as part of a routine examination required before Jackson National would consider increasing his coverage from $500,000 to $800,000.
The insurance company advised him he was medically unsuitable, but did not tell him why until nine days before his death.
In the meantime, Jody Deramus said she and her husband tried unsuccessfully to conceive a child, and she was exposed to repeated unprotected sex. Tests have shown she is free of the HIV virus.
She did not return messages left on her answering machine. Her lawyer, Kenneth Labowitz of Alexandria, Va., said Tuesday that she has not decided what step to take next.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB