The best lawyer story ever!

A Charlotte, NC lawyer purchased a box of veryrare 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 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.

This is a true story and was the First Place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

Some mystery recs

I'll try to leave out spoilers. These are all very American, so the overseas group might find them too full of American slang.

I just finished reading Susan Wittig Albert's Dilly of a Death. She writes herb-themed mysteries set in central Texas. I need to find a shop like the one her protagonist runs. I quite liked this book. She brought back a bunch of recurring characters, but you could manage without having read her earlier books.

Sue Henry's latest, featuring the lady who drives an RV, was a disappointment. The lady finds these letters but decides not to open them. Obviously, they explain the whole mystery. On a par with Jim dropping his gun (to make the episode run longer).

I keep meaning to rec Donna Andrews. She writes humorous mysteries. I liked the first Turing Hopper book, with one of the most original characters I've ever encountered, but the sequels were a disappointment. She left a plothole I could drive a truck through. On the other hand, her "bird" mysteries are a hoot. Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon had some memorable characters and I wanted to play the video game she described.

My favorite so far is We'll Always Have Parrots, not least because it's set at a fan convention, which she uses well. It's also got a very clever plot. She writes well, i.e. not snidely, about fanfic and slash.

( This is getting long )

Anyway it's an enjoyable read.