THIS IS THE BEST LAWYER STORY OF
THE YEAR, DECADE, AND PROBABLY THE
CENTURY.
A Charlotte,
NC lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars,
then
insured them against fire, among other things. 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 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.)
In 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 in 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 rare cigars lost 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! NO
WONDER THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES THINK WE'RE NUTS.