Only in the US of A...

[Infidel Castro]

Read this my lovely people!

A Charlotte, NC lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against fire, among other things. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed 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! (Stay with me.) In delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless that the lawyer \"held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire\" and 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 rare cigars lost 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 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.

---------------------------------------------------------

I despair sometimes, I really do .

 

[Ritual]

That\'s hillarious!!! lol I can\'t help but to think there\'s a beautiful symmetry to the whole thing that makes it brilliant in some awkward sense of the word. Completely stupid, but still brilliant!

 

[Avelorn]

Oh that was a good one! lol

 

[Infidel Castro]

It\'s about time someone fought back I suppose .

 

[Mordred]

hehe this is quite funny actually the insurance company propably said \' allright, you win mister \' while they had a plan to sue him afterwards.

Two lessons :

-American legal system sucks, really sucks. It\'s all about the best lawyers and really how stupid the jury is.
-The insurance company always wins

 

[Trevor]

Oh boy, that is funny.

many thanks, I needed a good laugh

 

[lahatiel]

I agree that it\'s a funny story... and I agree that the American legal system can be severely messed up. But you should not believe everything you read on the internet.

Sorry to spoil the fun, but there are plenty enough real reasons to go off on America without making up more. Not that Rev made it up himself, but still... maybe now he can despair just a little bit less.

 

[finn17]

Heh!

The thing about good \'Urban Legends\' is that, even if they aren\'t true, you feel they ought to be

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by finn17
The thing about good \'Urban Legends\' is that, even if they aren\'t true, you feel they ought to be

The best urban legends play directly to our fears and prejudices, that\'s why they are so informative about society in general. I like how Snopes.com editors often put a little blurb about this in their debunkings. I love Snopes

 

[supervike]

that is a good \'un

I heard that story quite a while ago, and unfortunatley much too good to be true...rarely do these things have such a poetic ending.

The real case would involve the lawyer making out like a fat cat, finding a loophole in the law which would make the public taxpayer foot the bill. Then a government \'non-profit\' watch dog group would be slush funded, hiring an unbelievable amount of do-nothing employees, who would lobby congress into passing yet more inane regulations, so ultimately each cigar will have a warning label slapped on it..\"will burn if lit on fire\".......maybe I\'m a bit jaded....

 

[Infidel Castro]

Good point Supervike, very good point. However, I know this one to be true because I heard it through a friend of my Aunt who knew the brother of the person read it over the shoulder of the judge on a bus!

 

[supervike]

well in that case...

Originally posted by reverend
Good point Supervike, very good point. However, I know this one to be true because I heard it through a friend of my Aunt who knew the brother of the person read it over the shoulder of the judge on a bus!

lollol

 

[Shawn R. L.]

This one isn\'t an urban legend, I heard the girl interviewed. Seems a couple of girls had some time on their hands and decided to do a good deed. They baked a bunch of cookies, wrapped them in neat little packages, put an note in with them wishing the recipient\'s well. About 10:30 at night they went around their neighborhood placing the gift\'s on peoples doorstep, knocking on the door, then running off into the night. WEEELLLLL, some lady got kinda freaked out at the sound of someone knocking on HER door late at night. First she calls the cops, \"there might be baddies outside my door\". After it is acertained she is safe, she preceeds to have a panic attach and calls for an ambulance, goes to the hospital thinking she is dying. Doctor reassures her all is well. Not good enough. She finds out who put the cookies there and knocked on the door, turning her whole world upside down. You guessed it. She sued the girls for medical bills (after the girls father offered to pay for the bill) and OF COURSE she won. The judge said the girls should have used better judgement!!?? No good deed goes unpunished.:flame:

 

[Torath]

very funny Rev I needed a good laugh. As for Shawn R.L. Thats your tipicial american everbody is sueing somebody. Thats why we have like 10 jugde shows to show how greedy we really are. :bouncy:

 

[lahatiel]

Unfortunately, Shawn R. L. is right: that one is a true story and is exactly what I meant when I said there are enough true stories out there of how the American legal system is eff\'d up. It happened within the last couple weeks in Portland, OR and -- unlike all the urban legend stories -- made news tidbits across the country. The judgment ended up being $900, as opposed to the outrageous multi-million dollar amounts that make for the best stories, but still... there\'s no way that case ever should\'ve even seen the inside of a courtroom.

 

[vincegamer]

Just as a note, the system is designed to avoid those ridiculous judgments. If a jury awards 80 million dollars (US million = 1000 x 1000) I guarantee the loser will only end up paying a tiny fraction of that.

 

[Molebrain]

well

Originally posted by Shawn R. L.
This one isn\'t an urban legend, I heard the girl interviewed. Seems a couple of girls had some time on their hands and decided to do a good deed. They baked a bunch of cookies, wrapped them in neat little packages, put an note in with them wishing the recipient\'s well. About 10:30 at night they went around their neighborhood placing the gift\'s on peoples doorstep, knocking on the door, then running off into the night. WEEELLLLL, some lady got kinda freaked out at the sound of someone knocking on HER door late at night. First she calls the cops, \"there might be baddies outside my door\". After it is acertained she is safe, she preceeds to have a panic attach and calls for an ambulance, goes to the hospital thinking she is dying. Doctor reassures her all is well. Not good enough. She finds out who put the cookies there and knocked on the door, turning her whole world upside down. You guessed it. She sued the girls for medical bills (after the girls father offered to pay for the bill) and OF COURSE she won. The judge said the girls should have used better judgement!!?? No good deed goes unpunished.:flame:

If you read a bit more about this case it\'s not quite that cut and dry. The girls went to a door at the back of the house, not the front door, and when her family went outside to see who it was the girls ran away without saying anything. And the woman disputes the fact that the girls family agreed to pay for the medical bills.

It\'s never as simple as it appears on the surface.

Zach

 

[lahatiel]

Originally posted by vincegamer
Just as a note, the system is designed to avoid those ridiculous judgments. If a jury awards 80 million dollars (US million = 1000 x 1000) I guarantee the loser will only end up paying a tiny fraction of that.

Good point. Juries will set extremely high punitive damage amounts but judges have, and do use, the power to reduce them.

 

[No Such Agency]

Would any Americans here care to comment on the suggestion that a lot of personal-injury lawsuits are pursued simply because the plaintiff cannot otherwise afford their medical bills for even a minor injury? I\'ve heard that even a broken finger let alone a major limb can result in $1000\'s in medical costs.

 

[sniffles]

Originally posted by Mordred

-The insurance company always wins

Not true!! I work for an insurance company. I used to handle claims. Most of the time insurance companies settle out of court. Insurance companies can\'t usually afford to have trial attorneys on staff, so when they go to court they have to hire attorneys and pay them just like everyone else. It\'s cheaper to just pay the claimant, even if there\'s good reason to believe the claim is false.

And most of the time, no matter what amount is awarded, the only people who get any money is the lawyers.

Just have to set the record straight - like everything else, you only hear about the bad insurance companies, never about the good ones.