Revenge is a dish best served cold—or with cold hard cash.

That's the philosophy that retired surgeon Roger Herrin followedwhen he was ordered to return much of an insurance settlement hecollected after his son's death in a car crash, and did so usingquarters.

In 2001, Herrin's son, Michael, died after a farm truck blew astop sign and hit the car carrying Michael and three otherpassengers. The other passengers survived, but were injured, withone subsequently requiring several knee surgeries.

Michael's family collected $1.65 million in wrongful deathclaims using their own private insurance. A pool of $800,000 ofunder-insured motorist coverage for the driver who caused the crashwas split among the victims, with a district court awarding most ofthe money to Dr. Herrin.

Years, later, however, an Illinois appeals court overturned thatruling and ordered Herrin to repay $500,000 to the crash survivors.Herrin evidently disagreed with the court's ruling. Although hemaintains that he gave most of the insurance money to hisex-wife—and kept none for himself—he argues that he should not haveto return the cash, considering that his son was the only one todie in the accident.

To express his displeasure, the former doctor paid $150,000 ofthe settlement using 600,000 quarters. The coins, which weighedfour tons, were packed in plastic sacks and delivered to theplaintiffs' lawyers in an armored Brink's truck, the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the doctor, his courtroom adversaries “were nothappy” with his preferred method of delivery. But maybe they shouldconsider themselves lucky: The doctor said that he originallywanted to deliver the settlement in pennies.