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Judge: Missing pants suit has no legs

A man loses his lawsuit seeking $54-million from a dry cleaner.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 26, 2007

WASHINGTON - A judge ruled Monday that no pair of pants is worth $54-million, rejecting a lawsuit that took a dry cleaner's promise of "Satisfaction Guaranteed" to its most litigious extreme.

Roy Pearson became a worldwide symbol of legal abuse by seeking jackpot justice from a simple complaint - that a neighborhood dry cleaners lost the pants from a new suit and tried to give him a pair that were not his.

His claim, reduced from $67-million, was based on a strict interpretation of the city's consumer protection law - which imposes fines of $1, 500 per violation, per day - as well as damages.

But Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that the owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the consumer protection law by failing to live up to Pearson's expectations of the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign once displayed in the store window.

"A reasonable consumer would not interpret 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer's unreasonable demands, " the judge wrote.

Bartnoff wrote that Pearson also failed to prove that the pants the dry cleaner tried to return were not the pants he took in.

Bartnoff ordered Pearson to pay clerical court costs of about $1, 000 to defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung. A motion to recover the Chungs' attorney fees will be considered later.

The Chungs said they held no hard feelings toward Pearson. "If he wants to continue using our services, then, yes, he is welcome, " Soo Chung said.

Pearson did not respond to requests for comment. His two-year tenure as an administrative law judge expired in April, and officials have not yet decided whether to reappoint him. While waiting, he continues to receive a $100, 512 salary.

[Last modified June 26, 2007, 00:32:41]