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BEST LAWYER STORY OF THE YEAR, DECADE AND PROBABLY THE
CENTURY.
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 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!
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 lost in the 'fires'.
NOW FOR THE BEST PART..
After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company
counter-sued and 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.
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