Heaven can wait, court tells dying man

ROME - A man given six months to live by his doctors has been told by an Italian court to come back in 14 months to hear the outcome of his demand for insurance damages.

Carmelo Cisabella, 39, has an inoperable spine disease and is anxious to pick up some $596,300 in already-agreed damages from his insurers to help ease his final months of life, Il Messaggero newspaper reported Tuesday.

In a bid to speed up the process, Cisabella turned to the Sicilian courts to put pressure on the slow-moving insurers, but was told to return next year to hear their decision.

In his frustration, he chained himself to the gates of the law courts to bring attention to his plight.

Il Messaggero said Cisabella's woes dated back more than a decade when he was left paralyzed by a motorcycle accident. Confined to a wheelchair, he subsequently developed a lethal infection of the spine.

The insurance claim dates back to the road crash.

Italian justice is notoriously slow and it takes on average 3,041 days to obtain a definitive sentence in a civil case.

- REUTERS