Lawyers rule

[AKPogue]

THE BEST LAWYER STORY OF THE YEAR



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



In 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 rare 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 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 ! NO WONDER THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES THINK WE'RE NUTS!

[Core Shot]

You've got spam

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

Good point here:
As to whether there could be any truth to the legend's premise, insurance policies are generally written so that deliberate actions on the part of the policyholders cannot trigger payouts. Furthermore, destroying your own property isn't arson, as long as the act isn't intended to defraud anyone. If a court had already ruled that the insurance company was required to pay, then obviously no fraud was committed, and thus the burning could not be considered arson

[ill-advised strategy]

The whole thing stinks to high heaven!

[Professor]

Anyone that listens to country already knows the story. Cant remember the artist that sings it though......

[maniloff]

Anyone that listens to country already knows the story. Cant remember the artist that sings it though......

Brad Paisley, on the "Mud on the Tires" album, title is something like "The Cigar Song." I'd feel better about myself if I'd needed to google that.

[cj001f]

I thought this was going to be about the drunk lawyer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV2qtvbIPFE

[irul&ublo]

I thought "The Cigar Song" was about Monica Lewenski

[lemon boy]

I thought "The Cigar Song" was about Monica Lewenski

yeah, still about a lawyer

[TNKen]

I invented both lawyers and cigars.

Al Gore

[Danno]

welcome to 1998!