PRINCETON - A chiropractor from Princeton disabled by falling debris after the 9-11 attack on New York is suing his insurance company for fighting his claim for years, then changing its mind after he spent $85,000 on a lawyer.

Anne McHugh, lawyer for Dr. William Goldstein, said the tactics of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. of New York, were aimed at bankrupting Goldstein so he'd stop fighting to receive a settlement for his disability.

Goldstein's lawsuit filed yesterday in Mercer County Superior Court accused Equitable of engaging in conduct "that demonstrates bad faith refusal to pay (him) benefits under his contract of insurance."

He'd paid premiums for over 20 years. Equitable began making payments after initially finding him disabled but stopped them in 2005, claiming he'd lied on his original application in saying he was a hands-on chiropractor when he was really just an owner/administrator. Goldstein said he was hands-on all along and charged that when Equitable actually interviewed his past employees, it learned the truth.

The suit alleges "that Equitable breached its fiduciary duty to its insured and that it breached its duty to investigate the claim in good faith," causing Goldstein money damages and severe emotional distress. He's seeking compensatory, consequential, and punitive damages, and $85,000 counsel fees and costs realized during five years of litigation.

"After years of litigation in federal court, on the eve of the final pre-trial conference," McHughsaid in a press release, "and without giving any reasons whatsoever, Equitable informed William Goldman that it was going to pay him benefits under the policy and abandon its accusations against (him) with prejudice.

"This shocking about face ... came after Equitable and its counsel litigated the coverage matter in the most contentious and oppressive manner in which a case can be litigated." McHughsaid Equitable generated a foot-high stack of subpoenas "in its slash and burn approach" and put the Goldstein family through hell.
Attempts to reach Equitable adjuster Kathy Alberti in Springfield, Mass., and an Equitable spokesman at its principal business address in New York, N.Y., were unsuccessful.

The chiropractor told The Trentonian that Equitable's private detectives tailed him everywhere, conducted video surveillance, watched him in supermarkets. The suit charges Equitable's lawyers "subpoenaed every aspect of his life ... over 10,000 pages of documents on Dr. Goldstein and his family.

" ... One would think the underlying case involved Microsoft, Enron or General Motors, not Bill Goldstein, a solo chiropractor from Princeton, N.J.," said McHugh, of the Princeton firm of Pellettieri Rabstein and Altman.

"They really made me feel like a criminal through this whole situation," Dr. Goldstein said. "Rather than the fact that I took out insurance to protect my family."
Goldstein said he lives in a cul-de-sac in Princeton and knew the surveillance cars - even learned one private detective's name.

"I would pull out, or I'd go to walk. I love my walking, but it's very limited," he said. "Even if I went to a mailbox, there was a car, down at the end of the street -- regular cars. And they would often use the same cars.