Best lawyer story of the year.

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 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.