Strange Cigar Stories – True or False?

 

Here’s a bizarre story about premium cigars. A Charlotte, North Carolina man purchased a case of very rare and expensive premium cigars. He then insured them against several things one being fire damage. Within a month and having smoked up his entire stockpile of cigars the brazen man filed a claim against the insurance company, insinuating that he lost his cigars in a “series of small fires”.

Of course the insurance company said, “Hell No” and refused to make any payments citing the obvious that the man smoked the cigars in a normal fashion. Well guess what? The man sued and he won!!!

The Judge delivering the ruling had agreed that the suit was frivolous, but stated nonetheless the North Carolina man did hold a policy from the company, which held up in court that the cigars were insurable. The were also insurable against any type of fire since the policy did not differentiate what they felt was ‘unacceptable fire’ and what was not.

Rather that dragging out the claim and enduring a long and costly appeal the insurance company wound up paying the man $15,000 for the rare cigars he lost ‘in the fires’

But before you think this guy away with it check out what the Insurance Company did in return. After the many cashed his insurance settlement check the company turned around and had him arrested on 24 counts (cigars) of arson. With the man’s own insurance claim and testimony from his previous case used against him the man was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property (cigars) and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

It doesn’t pay to blow smoke up someone’s……

Greg Elam –
Content Writer – Windy City Cigars