Cigar Insurance

----- Begin NetScrap(TM) -----

Cigar Insurance


A Charlotte, North Carolina man, having purchased a box of 24 rare and
very expensive cigars, insured them against... 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 the man held a policy
from the company in which it was warranted that the cigars were
insurable.  The company, in the policy, had also guaranteed that it
would insure the cigars against fire, without defining what it
considered to be "unacceptable fire," and so, the company 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 had
lost in "the fires."

However, shortly after the man cashed his check, the insurance company
had him arrested on 24 counts of arson.  With his own insurance claim
and testimony from the previous case used as evidence against him, the
man was convicted of intentionally burning the rare cigars and
sentenced to 24 consecutive one-year prison terms.


----- End NetScrap(TM) -----