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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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Former NFL Safety Sues Lloyd’s Over Injury Claim

(CN) - Former Carolina Panther Safety Hakuri Nakamura sued Lloyd's of London claiming it subjected him to "virtually impossible" procedures to prove his claim that he suffered a career-ending injury.

In a complaint filed in the Mecklenburg County Superior Court in North Carolina, Kakamura claims that Lloyd's buried him in duplicative and unnecessary paperwork, which led to extensive delays in processing his claims.

He also claims the doctor hired by Lloyd's of London refused to let him bring an advocate or anyone else with him to his examination and advised him that could still play professional football, and denied the claim.

Nakamura is asking the judge to force Lloyd's of London to honor the $1 million insurance policy it sold him, a ruling that could have profound implications for insurers who were only all too happy to write so-called "professional athletes' insurance policies in the past, when the long-term effects of concussions was less understood.

Nakamura, played for the Carolina Panthers in 2012 and 2013, and sustained a concussion in a preseason game on August 29, 2013. For the next few months, he claims, he suffered from post-concussion syndrome and was eventually released from the team.

Dr. Michael Collins at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, an international renowned expert in sports-related concussions, confirmed a diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome and labeled him "permanently disabled."

Nakamura says in his July 18 complaint that not only did the conclusions of the insurer's doctor conflict with those of Dr. Collins, they also contradicted a ruling by the medical advisory physician designated by the NFL Retirement Board, which awarded him total and permanent disability benefits.

In addition to compelling the insurer to pay his claim, Nakamura seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

He is John Schryber of Reed Smith LLP in Washington, D.C., and David Wright, of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson PA in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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