Only in the U.S. Legal System
A Charlotte, North Carolina man, having purchased a case of
rare, very expensive cigars, insured them against... get this...
fire. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of
fabulous cigars, and having yet to make a single premium payment on
the Policy, the man filed a claim against the insurance company. In
his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars in "a series
of small fires."
The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious
reason that the man had consumed the cigars in a normal fashion.
The man sued... and won!
In delivering his ruling, the judge stated that since 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 the
cigars against fire, without defining what it considered to be
"unacceptable fire," it was obligated to compensate the insured for
his loss. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process,
the insurance company accepted the judge's ruling and paid the man
$15,000 for the rare cigars he lost in "the fires."
After the man cashed his check, however, the insurance company
had him arrested on 24 counts of arson! With his own insurance
claim and testimony from the previous case being used as evidence
against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning the
rare cigars and sentenced to 24 consecutive one year terms!