This is the best lawyer story of the year, decade and probably the century.

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!

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.

 

Hmmmmmn.........I....ah, find this a little hard to swallow.

 

What really needs to happen next is the lawyer needs to reimburse the insurance company the $15K (after all, it was fraud) PLUS reimburse the insurance company for it's lawyer expenses any costs associated with the matter, AND finally reimburse the county for the cost of providing the judge, staff, and court facility. For grins they should have ordered him to pay for and participate in a stop smoking problem.

 

Most Internet stories like this one are false. This one has been circulating for quite a while. It predates the internet, (it's about 40 years old)!! See:

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

This is a good site to check before passing on these types of things.



.

 

Seems to me that Brad Paisley has a song that is this story.

 

Put that in your smoke and pipe it!

 

Heard this one before ...... Lawyer was Tom Dewey of the Law Firm Dewey, Chetem and Howe.

 

Quite a waco story wherever it came from!

 

Never heard that before, but I like it