" A Charlotte, NC man having 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 man filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the man 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 man sued.... and won!

In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The Judge stated nevertheless, that the man 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 a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000.00 to the man for his loss of the rare cigars lost in the "fires."

NOW FOR THE BEST PART

After the man 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 man was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and sentenced him to 24 months in jail and $24,000.00 fine. This is a true story and was the 1st place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Darwin Award Contest."

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), January 28, 2001

Answers

LOVE IT,, Irony is great,, when those people deceirve it, (hate it when it happens to me)

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 28, 2001.

I guess,"what's good for the goose is good for the gander."

-- hillbilly (internethillbilly@hotmail.com), January 28, 2001.

Earthmama, That is great! "a series of small fires" I about busted a gut. You have been coming up w/ some great stuff lately, Thanks

-- John in S. IN (jsmengel@hotmail.com), January 28, 2001.

YES, yes, yes! I wish all frivolous cases worked out as well!

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), January 28, 2001.

TOOOO funny!!! Thanks for sharing!!

-- Wingnut (wingnut@moment.net), January 28, 2001.

Giggle, giggle...snicker, chuckle!!!! Gotta tell this 'un to Hubby!

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), January 28, 2001.

A lawyer story I heard went like this: A little girl was flying her kite in a public park when a light aircraft attempted to make an emergency landing in the park and snagged the kite line. The kite string was a thin by strong synthetic strand that injured the little girl's fingers. The parents tried to sue the pilot of the plane but because he had declared an emergency situation he was protected, so they tried to sue the makers of the kite, which turned out to be an untraceable cottage operation. So they sued the makers of the string and won!

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), January 31, 2001.

This is an urban legend. It was looked into and denied by the Charlotte Observer newspaper ... back in 1997! http://www.charlotte.com/click/archive/0210boraksa.htm

-- nobody (abc@123.com), August 29, 2001.