Roy L. Pearson Jr. Takes Koreans To The Custom Cleaners
WHAT is it with judges and their nether regions?
Yesterday, Court of Appeal judge Stephen Richards was clearing his name of charges that he revealed himself to a woman on a London commuter train. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, a Washington judge was opening his case against a local dry cleaners he accuses of losing a pair of trousers.
The cost of his claim: $54 million.
Roy L. Pearson Jr. says that family-run Custom Cleaners lost his trousers in May 2005 and tried to fob him off with an inferior pair of “charcoal-grey pants”. He claims that signs in their window promising “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Same Day Service” amount to fraud and misleading the public.
The defendants, an immigrant Korean family called Jin, Soo and Ki Chung, have made three settlement offers, the last of which was $12,000. But all of them have been rejected.
Pearson has turned his suit against Custom Cleaners into a personal crusade. He opened the case by claiming that his lawsuit is defending all Washington consumers against poor business practices. It’s a line of attack Judge Judith Bartnoff, of District of Columbia Superior Court, is already weary of.
“You are not a we, you are an I,” Judge Bartnoff told Pearson. “You are seeking damages on your own behalf, and that is all.”
Later Pearson broke down in tears as he recounted the trauma of losing his precious trousers and had to be escorted from the courtroom.
Paul Rothstein, a law professor at nearby Georgetown University, told the New York Times: “I don’t know of any other cases that have been quite this ridiculous.”
Posted: 13th, June 2007 | In: Reviews Comments (18) | TrackBack | Permalink
