ABC News: $67 Million Lawsuit: Lawyer Sues Dry Cleaners for Lost Trousers — This is the sort of thing that gives lawyers a bad name. The excerpt does not do the story justice. You have to read the whole thing to appreciate it. It’s beyond ridiculous. Twilight Zone beyond.
A Washington, D.C., dry cleaners says its their business a long-time customer is taking to the cleaners. A $10 dry cleaning bill for a pair of lost trousers has ballooned into a $67 million civil lawsuit.
Watch Senior Law & Justice Unit correspondent Jim Avila’s report Wednesday on ‘Good Morning America.’
Plaintiff Roy Pearson — himself a local judge in Washington D.C — says in court papers that he’s been through the ringer over a lost pair of prized pants he wanted to wear on his first day on the bench. He says in court papers that he has endured “mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort.”
He says he was unable to wear that favorite suit of his first day of work.
He’s suing for ten years of weekend car rentals so he can transport his dry cleaning to another store.
The lawsuit is based in large part on Pearson’s seemingly pained admission that he was taken in by the oldest and most insidious marketing tool in the dry cleaning industry arsenal.
“Satisfaction Guaranteed.”
found by Aric Mackey
Sometimes I wonder if it’s better to come from a country where there’s no legal system or this?
I bet this press coverage should turn things around…
“mental suffering”….yeah, that man must really be suffering, but not from “losing” his pants…lol
This is so ridiculous…and I am not laughing either…
Reading up on this and similar lawsuits I figured, wouldn’t it be possible to make some legal body of “common sense” that would consist of a committee of reasonable people that could decide whether a lawsuit or its charges are “frivolous” or not…
Can you believe it.
All of the time spent in the family dry cleaning business and never a fight with a customer – glad i never had a customer such as this.
The legal system is primarily a source of JUSTICE, not of common sense.
The system is probably going to work. And, can you say “counter suit”?
Although, I’d hope our judges would conduct themselves with greater restraint.
Cases like this support repealing estate taxes. It takes a million-dollar trust fund to fend off malicious prosecution these days.
MSNBC covered this jot of American insanity, this morning. Turns out the drycleaners have already offered this schmuck $15K to settle.
What a greedy bastard.
Obviously, he is unfit to be on the bench. An ego-maniac who will waste his own court’s time. I say we start a movement to have him removed. He is employeed by the taxpayers but doesn’t mind wasting their tax dollars.
This thing has the job of taking miscarriages off the wheels of justice maybe he should go back to (pick one) 1. chasing ambulances 2. patient troll 3. working for the RIAA 4. stop the one breath in .one breath out stuff as he clearly has suffered brain death.
Jeez… You guys act like cases like this fill all out court’s dockets every day… Like millions upon millions of dollars are going from innocent people to the hands of greedy scumbags…
This was reported on because its an abberation, and this guy will not win 67 mil… Or anything at all, I imagine…
The guy should be disbarred for wasting the taxpayers time. That’s shameful. He does not belong on the bench.
I once gave a law career serious thought.
Fortunately, I made a better choice….
Sheesh….
#4
This spam Comment by rite way cleaners —
Leads to company selling glasses!!
I met a USA (fed. US attorney) once, just as scary as this “judge”. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe someone like this. Looks like the “Peter Principle” is still in force.
If it weren’t tragically true, I’d say it was an old Abbott and Costello sketch, “Where’s my pants?”
OFTLO, it’s because of things like this that the dry cleaner offered 15k, which is itself unreasonable. They want to pay extra to avoid the litigation bankruptcy lottery.
OFTLO??
All I can say to that is only in America.
Follow up: Stupid judge wins $67 million but because the dry cleaning store cannot pay the exorbitant award they are ordered to send the judges pants to any dry cleaner he sees fit.
if somebody could come up with a tort reform proposal that wasn’t simply a transparent way to allow industry to risk poisoning and/or injuring the populace to protect their shareholders, i’d be all for it.
btw — is this lawyer’s abject greed what conservatives refer when they tell me that “greed is good” ?
#15 – That’s true… and sad… and I hope it ends well for the dry cleaner… but this is still not your typical case, and my only point is that many commentors act like it is.
#16 – Hi John, I’m OFTLO… been here over a year now… usually a flaming liberal… sometimes a knee jerk reactionary… glad to meet ya…
“They’re the wrong lawyers, and they’ve gone haywire!”
In my world…(If I were ruler) I’d make the attorney and plaintiff in this case get their foot (or hand) smashed with a large sledge hammer for being stupid (I think after one or two smashings, attorneys would get the point not to represent stupid client civil suits). and then order this guy to wear flowered skirts for a year. Deny him ANY PANTS. Ahhh, if I ruled the world.
The civil justice system does allow this kind of nonsense, and, usually, it gets tossed for one reason or another. I think the cleaners needs a better attorney and/or for them to add that little warning on their sales receipts (don’t all cleaners do this?) “not responsible for loss or damage”. Seems to me that the “judge” should have known that you aren’t given absolute guarantees….and mistakes happen.
#16 comment by Mr. Dvorak referred to the fact that moss made the comment that MikeN was reffering to not OFTLO. I am sure that Mr. Dvorak knows who you are OFTLO 🙂
John S
The big problem I have is that while it is true that he was a lawyer the pants where for his first day as a Judge. We tend to expect more from a Judge then a Lawyer. This looks like we should not. As a judge will he not have the pants covered by a robe and while in court hidden by the bench.
John S
Can this genius be countersued, even saying assh*** 1000x doesn’t even begin.
#22 – I should hope so. I’ve been cleaning his pool for 4 years now… 🙂
#10 wrote, “Jeez… You guys act like cases like this fill all out court’s dockets every day… Like millions upon millions of dollars are going from innocent people to the hands of greedy scumbags…”
This is the standard lawyer response. Find an example of a lawyer/judge abusing the legal system and it is always the exception when it is in fact the rule. You are right about one thing, it isn’t millions. It’s billions. See asbetosis, silicosis, silicone implants, cerebral palsy (and John Edwards).
So is it a surprise to me to see a judge abusing the legal system for his own gain? No, that judge sees this kind of thing go on all the time and probably pulled similar stunts prior to his being a judge. In fact, just to give you an idea of how commonly civil cases are abused, I searched to see if perjury was EVER prosecuted in a civil case. I found one instance, and this paper was written around the time of Clinton’s impeachment. Here is the link: http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/100598Witnesses.pdf
And the money sentence: “As recently as this past spring it was not uncommon to hear some talking head say that nobody was ever prosecuted for committing perjury in a civil case.”
Why is perjury, a felony, so rarely prosecuted in civil cases? The cynic in me thinks such prosecutions would get in the way of lawyers making money.
Anybody who knows squat about the law knows that this type of case should have been tried in a small claims court. No one but a lawyer would get an offer of $15,000 for a missing pair of pants, and only a judge or psychopath would have the audacity to refuse it. Anyone else think that using the term “public servant” for a judge is usually an oxymoron?
#26 – This is the standard lawyer response. Find an example of a lawyer/judge abusing the legal system and it is always the exception when it is in fact the rule. You are right about one thing, it isn’t millions. It’s billions. See asbetosis, silicosis, silicone implants, cerebral palsy (and John Edwards).
There it is.
Dry cleaner messes up pants is on par with asbestos poisoning with this guy. No wonder you guys are consumed with blinding hate toward lawyers.
You love lawyers when they get the death penalty for a muderer. “Justice for the victim!” you say.
But when the criminal is big business, suddenly lawyers are scumsuckers and victims are whiny little crybabies.
True. This plaintif is a jerk and this case is bogus. And its an abberation.
A question I have is, why does it bother you so much that there remains at least one last line of defense that the weak can use to thwart the abuses of the strong? The judicial system is it. It’s all thats left that has the power to right the wrongs of corporate America. Unless it is that you have a vested interest in big business having unchecked power?
26- “a line of defense that the weak can use to thwart the abuses of the strong?”
You make lawyers more noble than they are. Let’s see… just count how many lawyers go into public defense or environmental vs. medical malpractice/trial law and you will see the true “nobility” of lawyers.
I’m in the medical profession. To me, the act committed by this judge is the same as if I purposely prescribed the wrong medicne for my patient with awful side effects because I had some personal grudge against my patient. This judge/lawyer has clearly abused his privilege in the legal profession to intentionally hurt this mom & pop small business.
While I would be prompty reprimanded and possibly lose my medical license for such grievous abuse, this guy probably will not face any formal reprimand or disbarrment from the legal society.
We need better regulation of wild entrepreneural attorneys who seek to make a buck without regard to those they trample on the way.
I laugh at any notion that most lawyers go into law to help the poor and weak. Just look at the numbers and the facts. The US legal system has been corrupted by money. There is no justice for those who cannot afford the appropriate legal fees.
Didn’t John Edwards (and John Kerry) propose some pre-screening panel to determine the merits of a tort case in order to screen out the most ridiculous ones?
IMHO, that would be a practical, yet fair, way to cut down on these crazy suits without taking away the needed deterrence of large settlements.
This is in the public forum. One of the blogs left the judge’s address, phone number, and email address encouraging people to “send their love.” To see the blog, go to blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/04/lawyerfiles65.html
smoke em out! yeeehaw! U.S.A,U.S.A,U.S.A,U.S.A!