[3322] in Humor
Cigars
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brian T Sniffen)
Thu Sep 21 11:30:35 2000
To: humor@MIT.EDU
From: Brian T Sniffen <brians@MIT.EDU>
Date: 21 Sep 2000 11:30:10 -0400
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 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 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. This is a true story and it won 1999's Criminal Darwin Award.
