Dmar Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 BEST LAWYER/INSURANCE STORY OF THE YEAR, > DECADE, AND POSSIBLY THE CENTURY. > > 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! > > (Stay with me.) > > 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. > > ONLY IN AMERICA .... > > NO WONDER THE REST OF THE WORLD THINKS WE'RE NUTS >
Matt Day Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 good one also out of the USA http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...ry-service.html
cigcars Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 *I had read that story some years ago in CA, and apparently it WAS 24 months in prison. The original article said 24 YEARS in prison. I figure your figure is closer to actuality. Also, there was a brief speculation that this story might have been fiction in with some other wild court cases. At any rate this is a classic story among cigar smoking aficions...
Habanos2000 Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 I have to call BS on this story http://www.snopes.com/crime/clever/cigarson.asp
CBL Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 I have to call BS on this storyhttp://www.snopes.com/crime/clever/cigarson.asp Good find! Too bad though, I really wanted this story to be true
cloganplatt Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 good one also out of the USAhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...ry-service.html That HAS to be from The Onion - America's Finest News Source
josie67 Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 *I had read that story some years ago in CA, and apparently it WAS 24 months in prison. The original article said 24 YEARS in prison. I figure your figure is closer to actuality. Also, there was a brief speculation that this story might have been fiction in with some other wild court cases. At any rate this is a classic story among cigar smoking aficions... I've heard this story probably 10 times in the last few years, but it's still a classic.
Montaigut Posted January 29, 2011 Posted January 29, 2011 Sorry folks... Up in Smoke! (The Cigar Arsonist) Netlore Archive: North Carolina man takes out fire insurance on pricey stash of rare cigars, smokes same, files claim. Guess who prevailed in court. Description: Email joke / Urban legend Circulating since: 1960s Status: Dubious Analysis: This story is decades old and likely originated as a joke. A much briefer version appeared in a 1965 toastmaster's manual and was apparently the direct inspiration of the earliest Internet variant, posted in a Usenet discussion in February 1996: A cigar smoker bought several hundred expensive stogies and had them insured against fire. After he'd smoked them all, he filed a claim, pointing out that the cigars had been destroyed by fire. The company refused to pay, and the man sued. A judge ruled that because the insurance company had agreed to insure against fire, it was legally responsible. So the company paid the claim. And when the man accepted the money, the company had him arrested for arson. We find the tale set in North Carolina for the first time in this Usenet version dated February 1997: Something heard on the radio: A North Carolina man, having bought several expensive cigars, insured them against... get this... fire. After he had smoked them, he then decided that he had a claim against the insurance company and filed. The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigar normally. The man sued. The judge stated that since the company had insured the cigars against fire, they were obligated to pay. After the man accepted payment for his claim, the company then had him arrested for... arson. As it traveled the email circuit the story grew longer and more detailed, and by the time 1997 was out the latter-day version set in Charlotte, NC had become standard. David Boraks, a reporter for the Charlotte Observer, tried vainly to authenticate it. "Somewhat sheepishly," he wrote, "I've tried to verify the cigar story. But searches of court records and newspaper files fail to turn up a single case or N.C. news article matching the incident." Not that anyone should be surprised. A new variant claiming the scheming cigar aficionado was himself a lawyer began circulating in mid-2002 (see above).
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