The one thing I love in the insurance business more than anything else is the crazy things people do and then expect others to pay for; usually an insurance company. So for your reading pleasure, I give you my latest collage of unusual claims and frivolous lawsuits!
Like the time in the late 1980s when a nice older couple (now passed on) had a two foot long hornet’s nest hanging under the soffit of their home. Afraid that she was going to get stung while in her garden, the woman asks her husband to remove the nest. So one evening, he wrapped a small rag on a steel pole and soaked it in kerosene and torched the nest. In the process of destroying the nest he set fire to his roof and eventually the entire home. No one was injured and the claim was paid.
One of my favorites was the case of an Ocean County resident who installed a diving board on the bulkhead of his lagoon front home. Diving into the lagoon on hot summer days was fun, especially after consuming large quantities of adult beverages. One particular Saturday, racing for the diving board, he does a loud Tarzan jungle call only to see his set of false teeth fly out of his mouth into the muddy lagoon water…never to be recovered! You have to schedule false teeth on a home insurance policy. Claim denied.
Another one of recent interest is an Ohio suit where a 28 year old drank a high alcohol malt drink and then proceeded to get into a serious auto accident. The suit is against a manufacturer of a drink called Four Loko (cool name by the way) for which the individual claims “the drink made me run out into traffic and get hit by a car.” The young man claims that the manufacturer should warn the public about its potency. The lawsuit is still pending.
A more recent case involves a young fellow who was at a Philadelphia strip club for his bachelor party with his buddies. He was invited to lie on the stage as the dancer slid down a pole. Apparently the dancer lost her grip on the dance pole and fell on top of the groom-to-be with such force that the fellow ruptured his bladder. The groom-to-be needed surgery and probably bodyguards to protect him from his distraught bride-to-be.
The lawsuit accuses the club of negligence and seeks at least $50,000 for medical costs, pain, humiliation and mental anguish. The lawsuit is still pending; the story will be re-told for years to come.
