A Charlotte, North Carolina man, having purchased a case of rare, very
expensive cigars, and insured them against ... [get this] ... fire. Within a month,
having smoked his entire stockpile of fabulous cigarsand 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 (as the obvious reason) that the
man had consumed the cigars in a normal fashion. The man sued...and won!
delivering his ruling, the judge stated that since the man held a policy from the
company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable, and also
guaranteed that it would insure the cigars against fire, without defining what it
considered to be "unacceptable fire," it 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 lost in "the fires." After the man cashed his check, however, the
insurance company had him arrested .. on 24 counts of arson! With his own
insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used as evidence
against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning the rare cigars and
sentenced to 24 consecutive one year terms!