American Lawyers

And now, entirely off topic as it were, and purely for a little light relief, Dr Crippen has to pass on a story he has just been sent concerning American lawyers. Apologies to those "over there" if the story is already widely known. It has only just appeared in the UK.

A Charlotte, NC lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, and then insured them against, amongst other things, loss from fire. Within a month he had smoked the entire stockpile of these great cigars and, without yet having made the 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.

In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated that nevertheless, 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 thus 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 consumed in said “small fires."

The lawyer cashed the check. A few days later, 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.

Dr Crippen hopes this is a true story. He very much wants to believe it.



Cigars from here