Archive for June 8th, 2007

I Just Don’t Get It

Friday, June 8th, 2007

What am I missing here?

First, Paris Hilton gets out of jail after 3 or so days of her sentence because the prison food is beneath her. Sure, she’s probably going back to jail, but that really doesn’t undermine the fact that she was, in fact, released. That decision was actually made.

Now I hear about a judge, yes a J-U-D-G-E judge, who is suing a dry-cleaner over the loss of a pair of pants.

Not unusual, you might say, but the fact of the matter is he’s suing for $54 Million. I’ll give that a chance to sink in.

$54 Million.

It’s a pair of pants.

There’s a scene in the film The Last Boy Scout where Bruce Willis makes fun of Damon Wayans’ $600 pants. I wonder what he’d say about this.

Anyway, here’s the story.

Judge Sues Dry Cleaners For $54 Million

Remember that judge who was seeking $67 million from a dry cleaners that lost his pants? Now, he’s asking for only $54 million, according to a May 30 court filing in D.C. Superior Court. (Click here for the AP story; click here and here for prior Law Blog posts.)

Roy Pearson, a D.C. administrative law judge, first sued Custom Cleaners over a pair of pants that went missing two years ago. He was seeking about $65 million under the D.C. consumer-protection laws and almost $2 million in common law claims.

He is now focusing his claims on signs in the shop that have since been removed. The suit alleges that the Chungs, the shop’s owners, committed fraud and misled consumers with signs that claimed “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Same Day Service.” But Chris Manning, the Chungs’ attorney, says that the fraud claim carries a “reasonable person” standard, and no reasonable person would interpret them to be an unconditional promise of satisfaction, he says.

Pearson, who is representing himself, said in an e-mail to the AP reporter that from the start, the case’s focus was based on the “false, misleading and fraudulent advertisements displayed by the Chungs.”