Charlotte, North Carolina...


A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against, among other things, fire.

Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these greatcigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment onthe 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, this is a true story)

Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company thatthe claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyerheld a policy from the company, which it had warranted that the cigarswere insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them againstfire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable "fire" andwas obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurancecompany accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his lossof 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 beingused against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning hisinsured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000fine.

This is a true story, and was a first place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

Go figure...