Category: News and Views
A Charlotte, North Carolina lawyer purchased a box of very rare and
expensive cigars. Then he insured them against, among other things,
fire. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the
Policy the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company. In his
claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost "in a series of small
fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious
reason, that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.
The lawyer sued and WON!
(Stay with me.)
Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that
the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer
held a policy from the company, which it had warranted that the cigars
were insurable, and also guaranteed that it would insure them against
fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable "fire" and
was obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure lengthy and costly
appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid
$15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the cigars in the "fires."
Now for the Best Part...
After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him
arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!! With his own insurance claim and
testimony from the previous case being used against him, the Lawyer was
convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was
sentenced to 24 months in Jail and a $24,000 fine.
This is a true story and was the First Place winner in the recent
Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.
Only in America! And perhaps we have too many lawyers
Wow! That was very interesting. Strange, but interesting. Lawyers never fail to amuse me. Congrats to the insurance company!
To many lawyers in deed...To many suits are frivilous just like this one, and to often the people who lose the first time around can't do anything about it...But a great story, going to pass it on to friends.