12/21/01


Only in America...

A Charlotte, NC man having purchased a box of very rare, very
expensive cigars, insured them against fire among other things.

Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of cigars and
without 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 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 that the claim was frivolous.

He 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 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 the man $15,000.00
for the rare cigars he had lost in the "fires".

HERE COMES 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 to 24 months in jail and a $24,000.00 fine.