A Washington judge sued his dry cleaners, seeking $67.3 million.

[BERIGAN]

I sure hope the Chung family can somehow counter sue this piece of shit!!!!!

A Washington judge sued his dry cleaners, seeking $67.3 million.

By ARIEL SABAR and SUEVON LEE

Published: June 13, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 12 — Roy L. Pearson Jr. wanted to dress sharply for his new job as an administrative law judge here. So when his neighborhood dry cleaner misplaced a pair of expensive pants he had planned to wear his first week on the bench, Judge Pearson was annoyed.

So annoyed that he sued — for $67.3 million.

Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

The shop’s owners are Jin and Soo Chung, Korean immigrants.

The case of the judge’s pants, which opened for trial in a packed courtroom here on Tuesday, has been lampooned on talk radio and in the blogosphere as an example of American legal excess. And it has spurred complaints to the District of Columbia Bar and city officials from national tort reform and trial lawyer groups worried about its effect on public trust in the legal system.

“I don’t know of any other cases that have been quite this ridiculous,” said Paul Rothstein, a professor of law at Georgetown University.

The trial, laced with references to inseam measurements, cuffs and designer labels, got off to a rocky start. Judge Judith Bartnoff of District of Columbia Superior Court limited Judge Pearson’s last-minute bid to broaden aspects of his case and cut short his efforts to portray himself as a “private attorney general” championing the rights of every Washington consumer.

“You are not a we, you are an I,” Judge Bartnoff said in one of several testy exchanges with Judge Pearson, 57, who is representing himself. “You are seeking damages on your own behalf, and that is all.”

Later, while recounting the day he says the cleaners tried to pass off a cheaper pair of pants as his, Judge Pearson began to cry, asking for a break and dabbing tears as he left the courtroom.

The lawsuit dates back to spring 2005. Mr. Pearson, a longtime legal aid lawyer, was appointed to a new job as a District of Columbia administrative law judge.

Judge Pearson says in court papers that he owned exactly five suits, all Hickey Freemans, one for each day of the workweek. But the waistlines had grown “uncomfortably tight.” So he took the suits to Custom Dry Cleaners, in a strip mall in gritty northeast Washington, for alterations.

When the owners, Korean immigrants who came to America in 1992, could not find one pair of pants, Judge Pearson demanded $1,150 for a replacement suit. The owners did not respond; he sued.

Using a complicated formula, Judge Pearson argues that under the city’s consumer protection law, the owners, Soo and Jin Chung and their son, Ki Chung, each owe $18,000 for each day over a nearly four-year period in which signs at their store promised “Same Day Service” and “Satisfaction Guaranteed.” In opening statements, Judge Pearson cast himself as a victim of a fraud on a historic scale, perpetrated by malicious business owners who had no intention of delivering on those promises.

“You will search the D.C. archives in vain for a case of more egregious or willful conduct,” he told the court. He called a series of witnesses who complained of rude or unresponsive treatment at Custom Dry Cleaners.

The defendants’ lawyer, Christopher Manning, told the judge that his clients were the victims. He characterized Judge Pearson as a man embittered by financial woes and a recent divorce, who had nursed a grudge against the Chungs since a spat over a different pair of pants in 2002.

“The plaintiff has decided to use his intimate knowledge of the District of Columbia laws and legal systems to exploit non-English-speaking immigrants who work in excess of 70 hours per week to live the American dream,” Mr. Manning says in court papers.

Mr. Manning said there was no mystery about the whereabouts of the pants: They have been hanging in his office closet for a year. Judge Pearson, however, has said those are “cheap” knockoffs the Chungs had substituted for his pinstriped Hickey Freemans.

He has rejected three settlement offers, the latest, in March, for $12,000. Last week, Judge Pearson revised a few claims and lowered his damages request to $54 million.

Judge Pearson’s future as an administrative law judge is in limbo. His two-year term expired on May 2, and a judicial panel has yet to decide on his reappointment.

In the meantime, Judge Pearson remains on the city payroll as an attorney adviser to the Office of Administrative Hearings, at a salary of $100,512.

[Shawn]

Well it's seems like a perfect picture of our corrupt, inept legal system at work...

[MoGrubb]

I don't care how/if inept the Chung family may be, $67.3 million is a bit excessive. What was the judge crying about again? what a wuss.

[J Larsen]

I can't believe this guy worked for the Legal Aid Society - they should be representing the Chungs in this case. I hope somebody is floating their legal bills. I read a couple months back that the bills had pushed them to the edge of bankruptcy and they were fearful of having to return to Korea.

BTW, how would you like to have Pearson as your judge? The guy obviously needs a good shrink...

[AllenLowe]

hey, guys, you just don't understand - there's nothing like a good pair of pants. As you get older certain parts of the body require more specific contours and support - and you cannot put a price on that - but if you HAD to, I would say $67 million is pretty close - personally I would settle for $5 million and free dry cleaning for life -

[Rosco]

Yo, Judge....

http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_9...Pants+%26+Jeans

Comfortable and stylish for today's judge-on-the-go

[J Larsen]

hey, guys, you just don't understand - there's nothing like a good pair of pants. As you get older certain parts of the body require more specific contours and support - and you cannot put a price on that - but if you HAD to, I would say $67 million is pretty close - personally I would settle for $5 million and free dry cleaning for life -

FYI you can go down to chinatown and get yourself an *excellent* custom made suit in the fabric of your choice for under a grand... Beats the crap out of anything off the rack.

[Hot Ptah]

You can write down any amount of monetary damages in a Petition or Complaint. That doesn't mean that you will get that amount at trial, or anything close to it. Some states have gone to requiring that the damages must be stated as "in excess of $10,000" so that people can't write down arbitrary high figures just for the shock value.

[DukeCity]

"Mr. Chung, in the case of the missing pants, how do you pleat?"

[Tom 1960]

I don't know who's the bigger ass here, the judge who filed the lawsuit or the judge who allowed this farce to go to trial?

Edited June 14, 2007 by Tom 1960

[J Larsen]

You can write down any amount of monetary damages in a Petition or Complaint. That doesn't mean that you will get that amount at trial, or anything close to it. Some states have gone to requiring that the damages must be stated as "in excess of $10,000" so that people can't write down arbitrary high figures just for the shock value.

I think we're all clear on that. However, Pearson apparently computed $67 million from formulae prescribed by DC consumer protection laws. Unless he is horrible at arithematic, that really is a shocking fact.

Edited June 14, 2007 by J Larsen

[catesta]

hey, guys, you just don't understand - there's nothing like a good pair of pants. As you get older certain parts of the body require more specific contours and support - and you cannot put a price on that - but if you HAD to, I would say $67 million is pretty close - personally I would settle for $5 million and free dry cleaning for life -

[MoGrubb]

That $67.3 mil had to include the cost for an extra set of drawers.

[Dan Gould]

hey, guys, you just don't understand - there's nothing like a good pair of pants. As you get older certain parts of the body require more specific contours and support - and you cannot put a price on that - but if you HAD to, I would say $67 million is pretty close - personally I would settle for $5 million and free dry cleaning for life -

Fact I wasn't aware of til recently:

Jackie Chiles was portrayed by Phil Morris who is the son of Greg Morris, Barney Collier on the original Mission Impossible tv show.

[David Ayers]

I hear that etherbored is now suing Mosaic for 'accidentally' sending him two copies of the Max Roach set. Damages are hard to quantify, but if he wins he will basically own the whole of recorded jazz history and an inalienable copyright in all known chord changes. Inspired by etherbored, I am thinking of suing the earth for problems caused by gravity when I dropped a penny down a drain.