Only in America

badhabit

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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.
 

cooie

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Sorry to burst your bubble.

Having been in the insurance business a number of years, this sounded fishy. ALL fire policies are written to exclude fires that are intentionally set by the policyholder.

So I went to my old friends, Snopes, and this is what they had to say.

Everyone needs to bookmark Snopes so they don't keep repeating this nonsense.
 
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badhabit

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Cooie, I know it wasn't true. I found it under the urban legands section on some humor page. It's not giving out anyone's name so it's not hurting anyone. I just thought it was funny...... Guess not. Geesh...
 

adymarie

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I thought it was priceless - thanks!

____________________________
from "a cat's little instruction book"

Never go to a vet who doesn't have cats himself

Never go back to a vet who discusses his/her stock portfolio while taking your temperature
 

valanhb

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You know, the really sad thing is that there are lawsuits that ridiculous that actually DO go to court and the idiots do win. Maybe not with the insurance industry as much, but they are still out there. (Like the tobacco lawsuits, IMO. And especially the lawsuits against the gun manufacturers - an inanimate object cannot be inherently dangerous.)

Anyway - I thought it was funny too.
 

katl8e

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Good story, true or not. It does illustrate how stupid frivolous lawsuits are. I'm a smoker (30+ years). I know that its bad for me. If I get sick, its my own fault. R.J. Reynolds has never forced me to consume their products. Where does the idiocy end? Do you sue Mcdonald's because their Big Macs caused the high cholesterol, leading to your heart attack?
 
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