WTF @ Judge



  • http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070503/ap_on_fe_st/65_million_dollar_pants


    Judge takes pants to same-day dry cleaners. Dry cleaners return pants 1 week late. Judge files $65M lawsuit.

    Because Pearson no longer wanted to use his neighborhood dry cleaner, part of his lawsuit calls for $15,000 — the price to rent a car every weekend for 10 years to go to another business.


    Good thing we have logical people like that deciding what is right and what is wrong in a court of law!



  • Not to mention that the judge claims the sign reading "satisfaction guaranteed!" constitutes fraud.



  • I didn't read this article about it, but I've read others.  Did it mention the fact that the dry cleaners insist they have the pants which match the ticket, and he insists they aren't his.



  • Only in America.



  • Honestly, I think this is the judges way of showing that our current system - where anyone can sue anyone else for anything, no matter how frivolous - is flawed.



  • No, it's just the judge being a selfish dick.



  • @un.sined said:

    Honestly, I think this is the judges way of showing that our current system - where anyone can sue anyone else for anything, no matter how frivolous - is flawed.

    This post caused me mental anguish.  I'll see you in court! 



  • > Pearson claims in court documents that his pants had blue and red pinstripes.

    > And former National Labors Relations Board chief administrative law judge Melvin Welles wrote to The Washington Post to urge "any bar to which Mr. Pearson belongs to immediately disbar him and the District to remove him from his position as an administrative law judge."

    Oh good.
    I don't want vindictive clowns practising law.



  • @dhromed said:

    >
    Pearson claims in court documents that his pants had blue and red pinstripes.

     I think that's a WTF right there.
     



  • Update! Judge has graciously reduced his lawsuit down to $54M.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070606/ap_on_fe_st/odd_67_million_pants



  • @Pap said:

    Update! Judge has graciously reduced his lawsuit down to $54M.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070606/ap_on_fe_st/odd_67_million_pants

    That's OK then... pay the man! 



  • It just gets worse!

    NEW YORK - ABC News has apologized for mistakenly running a picture of former Washington Mayor Marion Barry when it was promoting a "World News" story about a man suing a dry cleaner for $54 million for losing his pants.



  • It gets even worse, apparently he broke down crying in court.

    As Pearson explained that those weren't the pants for the suit, he choked up and left the courtroom crying after asking Bartnoff for a break.

    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8PNLVIO2&show_article=1 



  • http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070625/ap_on_fe_st/67_million_pants

    Update!

    Judge rules in favor of defendants.  Pearson to pay defendants' court costs.



  • Good that they won ;)

     Another question though... The Court Costs do NOT include your legal fees (for Lawyers and such) in the US?



  • Nope.  The $1000 covers the costs for filing documents with the court.  There is a motion by the defendant to recover legal fees, but it hasn't been heard yet.



  • @bstorer said:

    Nope.  The $1000 covers the costs for filing documents with the court.  There is a motion by the defendant to recover legal fees, but it hasn't been heard yet.

    Legal fees are almost never awarded (you pretty much have to show that the plaintiff knew the lawsuit was bogus from the outset). This is a big part of why the US legal system is so frequently a subject of complaints and derision - it is not difficult to dream up a plausible case against anybody, and drag it out for ages, just to force them to spend money they can't afford on lawyers.



  • @asuffield said:

    @bstorer said:

    Nope.  The $1000 covers the costs for filing documents with the court.  There is a motion by the defendant to recover legal fees, but it hasn't been heard yet.

    Legal fees are almost never awarded (you pretty much have to show that the plaintiff knew the lawsuit was bogus from the outset). This is a big part of why the US legal system is so frequently a subject of complaints and derision - it is not difficult to dream up a plausible case against anybody, and drag it out for ages, just to force them to spend money they can't afford on lawyers.



    Not so fast! They are having a fundraiser!

    The American Tort Reform Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform put on the fundraiser in hopes of defraying the Chungs' costs. The fundraiser netted more than $64,000, with more pledges still coming in, organizers said.


    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070725/ap_on_re_us/67_million_pants

    I bet you thought this thread was dead :)



  • Though the thread isn't, the Yahoo news pages are.

    And that's a WTF - why the hell do they break links after only a few months?
     



  • I haven't been keeping this thread current.   Sorry!  More updates:

     

    Citing a loss of revenue and emotional strain from the lawsuit, the Chungs announced, on September 19, 2007, that they have closed and sold the dry cleaning shop involved in the dispute. The Chungs still own one additional dry cleaning shop and have stated they will be focusing their attention and resources on their remaining shop.

     

    A judge who lost a $54 million lawsuit against his dry cleaner over a pair of missing pants has lost his job, District of Columbia officials confirmed.


    Roy Pearson's term as an administrative law judge expired May 2 and the D.C. Commission on Selection and Tenure of Administrative Law Judges has voted not to reappoint him, Lisa Coleman, the city's general counsel, wrote Nov. 8 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Associated Press.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/11/13/national/a163241S68.DTL&feed=rss.news



  • The American Tort Reform Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform put on the fundraiser in hopes of defraying the Chungs' costs. The fundraiser netted more than $64,000, with more pledges still coming in, organizers said.

    How do they do this? Do people just pledge money for any nutty cause they find on the internet? I've half a mind to create some bogus company to sue myself into oblivion so that I can make it big taking advantage of sympathisers' pity.



  • @ChZEROHag said:

    How do they do this? Do people just pledge money for any nutty cause they find on the internet? I've half a mind to create some bogus company to sue myself into oblivion so that I can make it big taking advantage of sympathisers' pity.

    Ah, just set up a website with some sob story about you being broke* and a Paypal 'donate' button, you'll probably find the money rolling in soon enough.

    * substitute you being broke with any story calculated to incur maximum profit.

     



  • Random unrelated comment: nice avatar, Phill :)



  • @PhillS said:

    @ChZEROHag said:

    How do they do this? Do people just pledge money for any nutty cause they find on the internet? I've half a mind to create some bogus company to sue myself into oblivion so that I can make it big taking advantage of sympathisers' pity.

    Ah, just set up a website with some sob story about you being broke* and a Paypal 'donate' button, you'll probably find the money rolling in soon enough.

    * substitute you being broke with any story calculated to incur maximum profit.

     


    Then you get arrested for fraud, gg no re.



  • @Lingerance said:

    @PhillS said:

    @ChZEROHag said:

    How do they do this? Do people just pledge money for any nutty cause they find on the internet? I've half a mind to create some bogus company to sue myself into oblivion so that I can make it big taking advantage of sympathisers' pity.

    Ah, just set up a website with some sob story about you being broke* and a Paypal 'donate' button, you'll probably find the money rolling in soon enough.

    * substitute you being broke with any story calculated to incur maximum profit.

     


    Then you get arrested for fraud, gg no re.

    What if I really am broke?



  • @Daniel Beardsmore said:

    Random unrelated comment: nice avatar, Phill :)

    Thanks, I was trying to come up with a variation on the whole theme!

    Then you get arrested for fraud, gg no re.

    Could you get arrested for fraud if you just posted up a website with some hard-luck story and a donate button? Even if you put a small disclaimer on the bottom to say "Disclaimer: story may not be true in the traditional sense of the word". 



  • @PhillS said:

    @Daniel Beardsmore said:

    Random unrelated comment: nice avatar, Phill :)

    Thanks, I was trying to come up with a variation on the whole theme!

    Then you get arrested for fraud, gg no re.

    Could you get arrested for fraud if you just posted up a website with some hard-luck story and a donate button? Even if you put a small disclaimer on the bottom to say "Disclaimer: story may not be true in the traditional sense of the word". 


    Probably, free credit report is quite far from free. Google around and you can find out why. At least in Canada we have the legal right to a free credit report at least once a year.



  • @Lingerance said:

    @PhillS said:

    @Daniel Beardsmore said:

    Random unrelated comment: nice avatar, Phill :)

    Thanks, I was trying to come up with a variation on the whole theme!

    Then you get arrested for fraud, gg no re.

    Could you get arrested for fraud if you just posted up a website with some hard-luck story and a donate button? Even if you put a small disclaimer on the bottom to say "Disclaimer: story may not be true in the traditional sense of the word". 


    Probably, free credit report is quite far from free. Google around and you can find out why. At least in Canada we have the legal right to a free credit report at least once a year.

     

    We get three in america. The real website is https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @pyro789x said:

    @Lingerance said:

    Probably, free credit report is quite far from free. Google around and you can find out why. At least in Canada we have the legal right to a free credit report at least once a year.

    We get three in america. The real website is https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

    In the UK we have to pay for them. The three (yes, 3 - you must apply to each separately) credit report agencies are required, by law I believe, to provide statutory (paper) reports for £2.

    Needless to say, two of the companies (Experian and Equifax) provide, for an extra fee of course, superfluous and bogus services[1], and hide the links to the cheaper statutory reports.

    [1] Your 'credit score' being one such service. This completely ignores the fact that your score with any company that provides credit is going to use a completely different system to credit score you.


Log in to reply