last year’s ruling for Provident Life by a federal judge in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who rejected Mark Messing’s claim that he was still unable to return to the profession he left in 1998.
Only Messing’s psychiatrist “directly addressed the question at issue: whether Messing could return to work,” Clay wrote. “He squarely stated Messing could not.”Messing’s lead lawyer, Gerald Zelenock Jr, said in an email that his client “has been vindicated and we are very happy that substantial justice has been done, albeit after a four-year battle.”
Messing was hospitalized for depression for several weeks in 1997, while serving as the firm’s managing partner. He resigned in 1998 and filed his claim for total-disability benefits, which Provident paid from 2000 until 2018.