Jury awards Las Vegas man $60 million over claim denial

A federal court jury on Thursday awarded a Las Vegas man $60 million in his case against an insurance company and its parent corporation.

G. Clinton Merrick, a retired venture capitalist living in Summerlin who was instrumental in the development of the "Kool-Aid Man" advertising campaign, had first gone to trial against the Paul Revere Life Insurance Co. and the Unum Group in 2004.

In that trial, the jury awarded Merrick $11.6 million in damages related to the insurer's denial of his disability claim, according to a press release from Merrick's Las Vegas lawyers.

The insurers appealed the decision and the case was sent back for a retrial with a different jury, which awarded Merrick $60 million on Thursday.

Unum has experienced intense media scrutiny in recent years related to other lawsuits involving denials of disability claims.