The Washington Pants Suit

Speaking of podcasts, I heard this one on the From the Pages of the Washington Post podcast the other day: Wearing Down the Judicial System With a Pair of Pants:

Don’t look for Roy Pearson to be out shopping for new suit pants this weekend. At the end of the $54 million pants suit in D.C. Superior Court yesterday, Judge Judith Bartnoff said she wouldn’t issue a decision until next week but nonetheless gave a strong hint of her direction.

After listening to Pearson argue for hour upon hour that he was somehow protecting the interests of all Washingtonians by using the D.C. consumer protection law to punish Custom Cleaners for allegedly losing a pair of his pants, Bartnoff said: “This is a very important statute to protect consumers. It’s also very important that statutes like this are not misused.”

Trying to get inside the head of Pearson — a D.C. administrative law judge who launched his long, twisted legal odyssey after bringing pants in to be let out — is tricky business.

This is a man who, despite his soft voice and polite demeanor, told the court yesterday that “there is no case in the District of Columbia or in the United States that comes anywhere close to the outrageousness of the behavior of the defendants in this case.”

The Chung family, owner of Custom Cleaners, is accused of the terrible crime of not only misplacing Pearson’s pants — either for a few days, as the Chungs contend, or permanently, as Pearson claims — but also posting a “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign and then refusing Pearson’s demand for vast sums of money.

He brought in several pairs of pants to be let out, allegedly got one wrong one back (he’s apparently not a cuffs guy), and is now suing for $54 million. Amazingly, this case has gone on for years now.

Did Pearson have a case? When the defense finally revealed the pants it says Pearson brought in for a $10.50 alteration, it wasn’t clear whether they matched the jacket Pearson displayed the previous day. One thing was certain: The pants bore the same ticket number as Pearson’s receipt.

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