Lawyer Basically Seeks $65 Million For Missing Pants
No one can accuse this lawyer of being a slacker:
When the neighborhood dry cleaner misplaced Roy Pearson’s pants, he took action. He complained. He demanded compensation. And then he sued. Man, did he sue.Two years, thousands of pages of legal documents and many hundreds of hours of investigative work later, Pearson is seeking to make Custom Cleaners pay — would you believe more than the payroll of the entire Washington Nationals roster?
There’s no hemming and hawing here. And it’s clear Pearson is not pursuing the lawsuit over the pants just to needle the cleaner:
He says he deserves millions for the damages he suffered by not getting his pants back, for his litigation costs, for “mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort,” for the value of the time he has spent on the lawsuit, for leasing a car every weekend for 10 years and for a replacement suit, according to court papers.Pearson is demanding $65,462,500. The original alteration work on the pants cost $10.50.
By the way, Pearson is a lawyer. Okay, you probably figured that. But get this: He’s a judge, too — an administrative law judge for the District of Columbia.
I’m telling you, they need to start selling tickets down at the courthouse.
There’s a LOT more on this story, so click on the link and read the rest.
PS: I can’t wait to see the thread in comments on this…..
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37 Responses to “Lawyer Basically Seeks $65 Million For Missing Pants”
Dare I say the lawyer is taking the defendants to the cleaners? In any case, his behavior is unseamly.
–|PW|–
Touche! A big touche.. (And don’t you DARE say that is what I have.. a big touche!)
A big toupee?
A couple of other things to add in:
1. The Washington Post has reported in the past that amlmost 90% of the dry cleaners in the DC area are Korean owned and ran. In Fairfax and Montgomery Counties around DC, the Korean Cleaners Associations has used environmental regulations to keep large scale, discourt, non-Korean owned cleaners.
2. Judge Roy Pearson is black. I assume that part of his legal threat is that a jury made up of individuals from Northwest DC will give Judge Pearson whatever he wants because there are many long term conflicts between Korean run business in NE DC and the local African-American residents.
or maybe he’s trying to sue tha pants off the cleaners…lol.
25$ and time served…case dismissed…where’s Harry from Night COurt when ya need him?
Pennywit: “his behavior is unseamly.”
That was very good!
But seriously…Judge Pearson is clearly harassing these poor people. He has turned down thousands of dollars in settlement. He has a lot of time on his hands. Soon he will doubtless be claiming a Civil Rights violation in this regard.
Odd how folks develop these Ahab-like obsessions. Last week Japan was shocked when one of its leading Yakuza bosses publicly assassinated the Mayor of Nagasaki. His reason: his car had been slightly damaged several years before by street workers, and the city had no made enough amends.
This was a similarly over-the-top response to a slight…which stunned Japan as violent crime there is almost non-existent…plus this was a senior Yakuza boss and not a hired gun. He felt his honor was at stake, I gather.
Ah well, I imagine everyone posting on this thread can expect court summons in the mail next week.
Hope to see y’all then….
Being a “slacker”…zinger!
“hemming and hawing”…double zinger! (BTW whats a hawing?)
I hope he wins the “suit”!…my own zinger! Because I’m really sick of business getting away with everything. If cleaners were forced by law to pay a customer $100 for item they lost or destroyed, service would be excellent all across the country!
Judge Pearson also worked at a few years ago Neighborhood Legal Services in Washington DC.
.” Judge Roy Pearson is black. I assume that part of his legal threat is that a jury made up of individuals from Northwest DC will give Judge Pearson whatever he wants because there are many long term conflicts between Korean run business in NE DC and the local African-American residents. ”
SD- I’ve lived in NW DC- and that is an absolutely ridiculous statement. NW is largely professional whites- why would they give him 65 million for missing pants?
kritter,
I meant NorthEast DC. The cleaners was on Bladensburg road. Now exactly the neighbhorhood that any Korean businessman would want a civil lawsuit jury to be picked from when the plantiff is black.
Right- so they’re going to pay him the 65 million for a pair of pants because they can’t afford the bad publicity! Do you have any idea how dumb that sounds???
No,
I am saying that if the case goes the court, the 12 black members of the jury will give Judge Pearson whatever he wants. That is why the lawyers for the cleaners keeps upping the settlement proposal. The Koreans and their lawyer definitely do not want to see the inside of a courtroom in DC. I could easily image a jury in DC giving millions in an award to the African-American community activist judge. It is one of the reasons that there are so few business in Northeast and Southweast DC.
Probably if they are Korean immigrants they are afraid of getting in trouble with the law- and he is a powerful judge- that’s more likely why. Except, with a name like “Custom Cleaners” they probably aren’t even Korean. And a lot of the communities themselves don’t want those big discount cleaners because of environmental concerns.
All the glib puns are very funny, indeed, but it’s clear that none of you have been caught in the vice of the civil “legal” system. It’s easy to laugh, until you’re the one that a lawyer zeros in on — then, you don’t think it’s so funny. Looking for all the factors that keep you out of the formula (cleaners, Koreans, etc.) works for a while, but in the end the quote of a German pastor in WWII is operative (paraphrased):
When they came for the communists, I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist;
When they came for the trade unionists, I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
When they came for the Jews, I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; and
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.
Is there no legal term or regulation for abuse and harassment through use of the legal system? It already sounds like a frivolous lawsuit to me. And another thing: does EVERYTHING in the US courts get decided by a 12 member jury? I know criminal cases are, but I’ve heard of plenty of cases where the decider is a judge, not a jury. Poor people, what a shameless abuse of power.
As for them being Korean and he black, quite frankly, I think it won’t matter. In fact, if anything I’d suspect that poor blacks would actually see more the “poor people being screwed by rich lawyer” than the color scheme of the thing.
Lynx,
You have never lived in DC, have you. This is the town here black owned business routinely use race as part of their marketing strategy. Several black owned clothing stores circulated fliers attacking their cheaper, Korean owned competitors as being outsiders and not part of the community.
Maggie,
I heard a talk one time from one of the law firms that specialized in defending nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel cycle facilities in liability cases. He talked about how the “never settle a damn thing” strategy had worked for the nuclear power industry. They, apparently, are one of the least sued industries because any contingency based plantiff’s lawyers risk bankrupcy if they sue a nuclear power plant.
I heard a talk one time from one of the law firms that specialized in defending nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel cycle facilities in liability cases. He talked about how the “never settle a damn thing� strategy had worked for the nuclear power industry. They, apparently, are one of the least sued industries because any contingency based plantiff’s lawyers risk bankrupcy if they sue a nuclear power plant.
This works because the nuclear power folks have very deep pockets. Not really an option for a small business.
It also has a downside, because it undoubtedly shields the industry from at least some legitimate lawsuits.
Victory in court should not depend upon who has the deeper pockets. And the court needs a mechanism to prevent the legal system being used for harassment. Like, for instance, why was this case allowed to escape small-claims court?
Think “reparations.” *retch*
I Hope They Were Cuffed, At Least…
Lawyer seeks $65 Million from dry cleaner for missing pants. Bill Clinton could not be reached for comment. (Via Pajamas HQ.)……
Pun Paradise!
Well, there is some bad feeling between the Koreans and the black community- but there’s still no way of knowing if the dry cleaner’s owners are Korean.
Lynx:
We’ve learned through very bitter experience of our own that there are plenty of terms (abuse of process, malicious prosecution, etc), but the bar has been set so high (in terms of standard of proof), that it’s virtually impossible (and prohibitively expensive). The problem is you first have to go through the meatgrinder and win the first case; then, you file a second lawsuit for what (on the civil side) is called malicious prosecution. How many people are going to go to the trouble and expense of coming out the other end of two lawsuits.
It’s a scam — a lawyer employment program, and since the courts and most legislatures (for the most part) are populated by lawyers, it’s never going to change.
So, to any and all of you who may have two nickels to rub together (or insurance), get ready. Your day *will* come. It’s really disgusting…
I just read the piece, and the owners are Korean- my mistake! Reminder to self- read first, then comment!
Suing for some ridiculouse number, like $65M, doesn’t get you anything but publicity. If the judge, lawyer, man who lost his pants sues for the price of the pants, we’d never know about it. But ridiculously high demands in a lawsuit get a lot of press and recognition by the Chamber of Commerce and the tort deformers.
Certainly the case should have been never brought, settled out of court or at the most taken to small claims court. There are other motivations at play here. There is something other than $65M that Pearson is getting out of this case. My guess is publicity. He may be running for office in the future and is working on name recognition.
Certainly, no jury anywhere is going to award $65M. More likely, when the case actually comes before a judge at a status conference of some type, the case will be knocked down to a more appropriate level of court.
There is no way that the judge presiding over such a case is going to allow even a $10,000 award stand. There is no way that even a $10,000 award would get passed an appeals court.
Ludicrous lawsuits can be filed. It is very rare that a ludicrous lawsuit gets a judgement for the plaintiff. Have you EVER known of one getting collected? Collecting huge sums of money on a ludicrous lawsuit is an urban myth.
John Bisnar, http://www.californiainjuryblog.com
John Bisnar:
It may well be that there will be no large award, but it’s been *two years* of legal fees and other costs that the cleaner people have had to shell out; not to mention the nightmare on the personal side. Two years. There must’ve been status conferences, mandatory mediation sessions, all kinds of stuff. The case is still pending (apparently).
Agree with you 100% that there must be some other motivation at play. But in the meantime, the cleaner people are paying through the nose.
There has to be tort reform, or it will absolutely strangle this country. The courts are already clogged. A lot of it with this kind of silliness.
Sorry to be posting again. Missed your last point.
Yes. *a judgment* in a ludicrous lawsuit is rare because it rarely gets that far. Most people capitulate and settle, either because they make a “business decision” that they’ll spend more fighting, or because they don’t have the money to fight in the first place.
This is the most inscrutable sartorial development I have seen since the document-swallowing pantaloons of Sandy Berger.
To John Bisnar… yea, those Ludicrous lawsuits usually are not won but that doesn’t keep the swarmy lawyers from collecting their fees which is what it’s all about. Even on the big class actions that are “Won”, usually the grieved parties get a refund coupon worth about 50 cents and the bloodsucking lawyers get their millions in fees.
This man should be disbarred and thrown out of court as a judge forever. His behavior is ridiculous and a huge reason why our judicial system is such a crock. This should never be allowed.
I think what would make an even stronger case for Judge Pearson, is to take a page from the John Edwards book of litigation: He should “channel” his pants, and try to tell the jury how lonely it was for his pants, to be lost in the vast storerooms of the dry cleaners, not seeing sunlight, or the joy of caressing the judge’s legs. This worked for a someone who almost became the VP of the US, and earned him untold millions of dollars.
Send him some love!
Pearson, Roy L Jr
3012 Pineview Ct NE
Washington, DC 20018-1617
Or leave a message on his answering machine (he doesn’t answer his phone directly anymore): (202) 269-1191
Or send him an email: roypearsonjr@verizon.net
I wonder if in some way he means to do this as a way of making a bold statement about the relative absurdity of our court system.
If so he’s definitely exposed flaws, and made a point. The fact that this has been allowed to go on for two years, at a large cost to the cleaner store, is proof of that.
I think he should just get over it and leave the small business owner alone. If the judge needs help buying another pair of pants I would be glad to pitch in a few bucks. and think color or race has nothing to do with any…
Judge Pearson is not only abusing the Chungs, but he is abusing the system he has vowed to protect. He SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED in our Justice System! I hope some of us will let the Chungs know how sorry we are for this Ugly American.
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