debris4spike: (Spike - Blow me away)
[personal profile] debris4spike

This has been sent to me by a friend in America ... I thought the Brits were mad ... but ...

BEST LAWYER/INSURANCE STORY OF THE YEAR,

This took place in 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 great cigars, 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!

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 cigars that perished 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 true story won First Place in last year's Criminal Lawyers Award contest.


Date: 2009-06-30 11:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erykah101.livejournal.com
lol, I've always loved this story... since the first time I heard it about a decade ago.

It's a great story, but sadly it's not true. In fact the story about this story is pretty cool. Apparently it's been around since the sixties!

http://www.snopes.com/crime/clever/cigarson.asp

Date: 2009-06-30 12:57 pm (UTC)
sarian71: (Facepalm)
From: [personal profile] sarian71
Bwah! That's brilliant! Lawyers and their loopholes... :)

Date: 2009-06-30 01:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kudagirl.livejournal.com
Frivolous lawsuits are a dime a dozen here in the States. Love how this one turned out. Basic idea is the lawyer burned his own butt.

Date: 2009-06-30 04:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sp23.livejournal.com
I want to marry that insurance company! LOL

Date: 2009-06-30 05:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jaded-jamie.livejournal.com
ROFL! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Way to try and beat the system and utterly fail!

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