$65 million for a pair of pants
p2pnet.net OT news:- “A customer got so steamed when a dry cleaner lost his trousers that he sued for $65 million,” says Associated Press.
“Two years later, he is still pressing his suit.”
Ow!
The writer deserves to be named for that, but there’s no by-line. And although the intro is a laugh, the story isn’t.
It goes on that South Korean immigrant owners Jin Nam Chung and Ki Chung (seen here in this clip from Jacquelyn Martin’s AP pic) want the upset the customer, Washington administrative law judge Roy L. Pearson Jr, “disbarred and removed from office for pursuing a frivolous and abusive claim”.
Says AP:
According to court documents, the problem began in May 2005 when Pearson became a judge and brought several suits for alterations to Custom Cleaners in Washington. A pair of pants from one suit was missing when he requested it two days later.
Pearson asked the cleaners for the full price of the suit: more than $1,000.
But a week later, the Chungs said the pants had been found and refused to pay. Pearson said those were not his pants, and decided to take the Chungs to the cleaners and sue.
The Chung’s lawyer, Chris Manning, says his clients made three settlement offers to Pearson: $3,000, then $4,600, then $12,000.
“But,” says AP, “Pearson was not satisfied and expanded his calculations beyond one pair of pants.”
It seems his case rests on “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Same Day Service” signs which, he declares, amount to fraud.
“In addition to replacing the threads, the Judge wants them to pay for his costs to rent a car every weekend for 10 years so he can take his suits to a different dry cleaner, and for the damages he suffered by not getting his pants back, for his litigation costs, for ‘mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort,’ [and] for the value of the time he has spent on the lawsuit,” writes The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher.
“A glance at Judge Pearson’s bio reveals no clues to whether he’s crazy enough to think a jury would award him such a hefty sum,” says dcist.com in the original story, adding:
“For almost 25 years he worked with an organization that provides, ‘civil legal assistance to indigent residents of the District of Columbia,’ – surely a worthy cause. We’ll have to wait until June, when the complaint is scheduled to appear in court, and see if the case leads to a windfall for victims of sartorial mistaken identity everywhere.”
p2pnet went looking for a pic of the good judge. But interestingly, his pic and bio have now been deleted from the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings website. But the mayor’s feedback page is still there.
Also See:
Associated Press – Judge’s missing pants lead to big suit, May 3, 2007
The Washington Post – Lawyer’s Price For Missing Pants: $65 Million, April 26, 2007
dcist.com – D.C. Judge Seeks $67 Million for Lost Pants, April 13, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 8th, 2007 at 5:48 am
The judge is simply doing, in an exgerated manner, what he sees everyday in court, the filing of extortion lawsuits, against defenseless victims, where the sued victim has to settle because legal expenses run high because the legal court business requires too much lawyer time, billed, of course.
The americans vs americas war raging in the american courts is causing as much damage to the american people and their economy, as much as the americans vs. iraqs war is casing the iraqi people. In one war the arms makers profit, in the other, the lawyers profit.
The relevant question here is when will the war in the american courts end? Who will do it, the so called “we the people” or “we the politicians”?
Rafael Venegas
gvenegas.com
May 8th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Rafael, you’re entirely correct. This is a situation which the RIAA/MPAA is exploiting to the fullest.