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!

(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, 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 cig

ars 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 !

Like you say John, only in America (actually, only in the USA-leave Mexico, Canada et al out of this!!) The only place where a nerd hacking into NASA computers looking for evidence of extra-terrestrials could be accused of terrorism and a demand made to extradite him put him on trial with a maximum sentence of 75 years

Dang, you should come visit my law firm... more to laugh about!