Welcome to 103rd Monday Musings !
A lawyer purchased a box of 24 of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against, among other things, fire.
Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars, 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! (this gets good...)
Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous.
The judge stated nevertheless, the lawyer held a policy from the company, in which it had warranted the cigars insurable and guaranteed it would insure them against fire. Without defining what is considered to be unacceptable 'fire', so was 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 cigars that perished in the 'fires'.
Now for the best part...
After the lawyer 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 lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.
Moral of the story :
The strength of the story lies in its ultimate lesson to the plaintiff. It is a morality story, showing that a person cannot get away with trickery, it highlights that bad deeds do get punished.
It also highlights that excessive greed will lead to your downfall because One who digs a hole for someone will fall into it himself.
Make it a great Week !
Shailesh
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