The term spontaneous combustion can often be found in late-night, beer-fueled conversations and MythBusters marathons. Despite the accepted science that yes, such a phenomenon does take place — although perhaps not in human beings — it’s commonly relegated to falling in the same breath as a snicker or goofy rhetorical question.

For Peter Restani however, spontaneous combustion is no laughing matter. It may very well have been the thing that exonerated the Miami lawyer’s client, refrigerator manufacturer Turbo Air, from having to pay out $2.25 million in a fire loss.