Our judicial system at work!!!!
This is why lawyers and insurance companies are so popular.
A Charlotte, NC man having purchased a box of very rare, very expensive
cigars insured them against fire among other things. Within
a month of having smoked his entire stockpile of cigars and without
having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the man filed
a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the man 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 man sued...and won! In delivering the ruling, the
judge agreed that the claim was frivolous. He stated nevertheless that the man
held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars
were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure against fire,
without defining what is considered to be "unacceptable fire," and was
obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly
appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid the man
$15,000.00 for the rare cigars he had lost in the "fires."
HERE COMES THE GOOD PART!!
After the man cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested
on 24 counts of ARSON. With his insurance claim and testimony from the
previous case being used against him, the man was convicted of intentionally
burning his insured property and sentenced to 24 months in jail and a
$24,000.00
fine.
This is a true story and it won the 1999 Criminal Darwin Award.
