Judge sues cleaner for $65M over pants

[Niels Bohr 72]

The justice system is a double standard for some people.

[homesick_american 1]

This guy is f*cking pathetic. Why hasn't this been thrown out yet? Maybe we DO need some tort reform in the hizzouse.

[PlatyPius 5]

I hate lawyers. I rate them one notch below cockroaches.

The world would be a much better place without lawyers.

Or judges.

Or $1000 suits.

[Jasman0717 9]

that judge is a chopf##k

Couldn't have said it any better myself Dean

[mawilson 2,133]

Judge sues the pants off cleaner for $65M over pants, #######?!?!?!?!?!!?

Fixed.

Edited May 4, 2007 by mawilson

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

follow up

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Judge suing dry cleaner cries over pants

WASHINGTON - A judge had to leave the courtroom with tears running down his face Tuesday after recalling the lost pair of trousers that led to his $54 million lawsuit against a dry cleaner.

Administrative law judge Roy L. Pearson had argued earlier in his opening statement that he is acting in the interest of all city residents against poor business practices. Defense attorneys called his claim "outlandish."

He originally sued Custom Cleaners for about $65 million under the District of Columbia consumer protection act and almost $2 million in common law claims. He is no longer seeking damages related to the pants, instead focusing his claims on two signs in the shop that have since been removed.

He alleges that Jin Chung, Soo Chung and Ki Chung, owners of the mom-and-pop business, committed fraud and misled consumers with signs that claimed "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Same Day Service."

Pearson, representing himself, said in opening that he wanted to examine the culture that allowed "a group of defendants to engage in bad business practices for five years."

An attorney for the Chungs portrayed Pearson as a bitter man with financial troubles stemming from a recent divorce who is taking out his anger on a hardworking family.

"This case is very simple. It's about one sign and the plaintiff's outlandish interpretation," attorney Chris Manning said.

The Chungs were to present their case Wednesday. Manning asked D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff to award them reimbursement for their legal costs if they win.

Pearson called several witnesses Tuesday who testified that they stopped going to Custom Cleaners after problems with misplaced clothes.

Pearson also called himself as a witness, saying his problems began in May 2005 when he brought in several suits for alterations. A pair of pants from a blue and maroon suit was missing when he requested it two days later. He said Soo Chung tried to give him a pair of charcoal gray pants.

As Pearson explained that those weren't the pants for the suit, he choked up and left the courtroom crying after asking Bartnoff for a break.

Pearson originally asked the cleaners for the full price of the suit, which was more than $1,000. But because the Chungs insisted the pants had been found, they refused to pay.

Manning has said the cleaners made three settlement offers to Pearson, but the judge was not satisfied and increased his demands — including asking for money to rent a car so he could drive to another business.

link

i think the judge has been sniffing the dry cleaning fluid

[natty bumppo 297]

maybe the pants lost a button .. and these were special "Monika" pants .... sentimental value you know

[Lance27 19]

What happened to common sense here? Hopefully this case will get thrown out of court.

[natty bumppo 297]

What happened to common sense here? Hopefully this case will get thrown out of court.

Just think ... judges like this preside over cases dealing with illegal aliens … and illegal proponents love the judges decision

[Heracles 417]

This stupid judge is from DC. The city which voted in a convicted drug felon twice as mayor. Actually Marion Barry is still on the council board. So I am not surprised as only crooks come out of that city..

[Emancipation 2]

Why was he crying over a case of missing pants? I don't get it? Holy.. talk about crocodile tears!

[almaty 19]

Why was he crying over a case of missing pants? I don't get it? Holy.. talk about crocodile tears!

the jude is a 1st class certified chopf##k, they piss and moan about everything

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

and it gets better!

-----------------------------------

Cases of bad judgment

Taken to the cleaners.

Will somebody please get Roy Pearson a new pair of pants - and some sense of proportion?

For those who've somehow missed the international headlines, the blogs and the morning talk shows, Pearson is the Washington, D.C., administrative law judge who sued his dry cleaner for $65 million for losing his pants. (Yes, you read that correctly: $65 million and lost pants.) Pearson has since slashed his claim to a mere $54 million.

Pearson dragged the establishment's Korean immigrant owners into court, claiming that they violated the city's consumer fraud law by failing to make good on a "satisfaction guaranteed" pledge. This week, two years after the incident, the case went to trial, and a ruling is expected soon. Pearson's rambling, emotional testimony included his description of one traumatic moment - when the cleaners allegedly tried to pass off some other pants as his - as a "Twilight Zone experience."

At one level, the case is just an oddity - a particularly extreme example of the many ludicrous claims filed every year. They are inevitable because anyone is entitled to go to court, and should be. But the handling of the case points to broader problems. For starters, why didn't a judge shut this down sooner? Pearson could have been dispatched to small claims court. Part of a judge's job is to weed out meritless claims.

Moreover, how does someone who would file such a claim end up as an administrative judge, deciding cases that affect other people's lives? Pearson was serving a two-year term, which ended last month, and he's up for reappointment. Meanwhile, he continues to pull down $100,512 a year on the public payroll as an attorney adviser.

Aren't judges supposed to have, well, some sense of judgment?

And where does Pearson shop anyway? Someone should tell him you can buy a really nice pair of pants for less than $54 million.

Shoe on other foot.

Compared with Pearson's $54 million suit, Robert Bork's decision to sue the Yale Club for $1 million is small potatoes. And the facts of the case - Bork fell while trying to get onto a dais that had neither a step nor a railing - are unremarkable.

Unremarkable, that is, except that Bork, 80, is one of the nation's leading conservative legal scholars and has occasionally taken aim at the type of tort he is now bringing. To wit, in a 1995 op-ed piece that he co-authored, the former appellate judge and Supreme Court nominee argued that the constant threat of personal injury lawsuits makes America's civil justice system "expensive, capricious, unpredictable."

Bork managed to deliver his scheduled Yale Club speech despite the injury. But he later underwent surgery. In his complaint, he blames the club for "pain and suffering, a continuing leg injury, medical bills and related costs of treatment, and lost work time and income." The amount of his claim, and the fact that he is asking for unspecified punitive damages, has prompted a number of Bork's critics to cry hypocrisy.

Well, maybe. But the pain of personal experience also has a way of overriding opinions formed from detached study or ideological rigidity. Or perhaps the great social theorist Cyndi Lauper had it right: Money changes everything.

Letter of the law.

From less rarefied legal circles comes this story: In 2003, Genarlow Wilson, 17, attended a New Year's Eve party involving alcohol and marijuana. There, he received oral sex from a 15-year-old girl, all videotaped by a fellow partygoer. Police saw the tape, and Wilson was arrested.

Although the sex was consensual, Georgia law at the time deemed it to be aggravated child molestation, which carried a mandatory 10-year sentence. Lawmakers might not have had consenting teens in mind when they wrote that law, but Wilson was convicted and got the 10-year sentence.

Now 21, Wilson has served 28 months. During his incarceration, Georgia lawmakers downgraded the offense he committed to a misdemeanor, but it wasn't retroactive.

Does keeping Genarlow Wilson in prison amount to reasonable justice? Not according to Georgia Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson (no relation), who earlier this week called the case a "grave miscarriage of justice" and ordered Wilson released.

End of story? Not quite. Georgia's by-the-book attorney general, Thurbert Baker, filed a notice of appeal, saying the judge had exceeded his authority and set a bad precedent. Wilson is still in prison.

The best that can be said for the Wilson case is that the state has a legitimate interest in keeping older teens from preying on younger ones - if that even happened. But it's a weak argument.

Georgia, like every other state, has no shortage of serious crime. And, like every other state, it has a limited number of prosecutors, prison cells and other resources that make a criminal justice system work.

Aren't there other cases more worthy of the attorney general's attention? And, regardless, is prison really the right remedy for consensual teenage sex?

Justice demands judgment, not rigidity. That's true whether the issue is teen sex, an unfortunate fall or a $54 million pair of pants.

link

[Fandango 1,439]

I hope Pearson's career is ruined for this malicious & horrible thing he's doing to these people.

[almaty 19]

i agree sister lisa