Terry Klein points us to Maxwell v. AIG Domestic Claims, Inc., in which the Massachusetts Appeals Court today ruled that the insurer should be ashamed of itself.

Despite a complete absence of factual evidence that he'd done anything wrong, the company harassed some guy - to the point of convincing the Suffolk County DA's office to bring him up on criminal charges and driving him to attempt suicide - rather than simply pay for surgery for a workplace injury he suffered.

Today's ruling was on a motion by the insurer to dismiss a suit the man brought against AIG under a state law used to protect citizens against "strategic" lawsuits by giant companies. In rejecting the motion, the court came as close as propriety would allow to sticking its tongue out and going "We don't think so, pal."