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Washington - There was a scene of quiet but efficient activity inside Custom Cleaners.
Staff were busily sorting out piles of garments while owner Soo Chung and her husband Jin, were dealing with customers with clothes to be cleaned and pressed.
Soo Chung gave a smile but she
did not appear to be very happy. "We have a big problem. A big problem."
The Chungs are facing a huge US$65 million ($88 million) problem in the form of a remarkable lawsuit regarding a pair of trousers belonging to a local judge that the couple allegedly misplaced. All that for a simple pair of grey trousers, one might gasp.
The Chungs would share such bewilderment. If they were in the mood for levity - and they are not - they might say they were being taken to the cleaners.
"They are good people," said the couple's lawyer, Christopher Manning. "The Chungs have suffered emotionally and physically [as a result of this lawsuit]. They are unable to sleep, they are very stressed. They came here [from South Korea] seeking the American dream but Roy Pearson has made it an American nightmare."
Judge Pearson is the man behind this unlikely lawsuit, that hints at the lunacy that can grip the litigation process in this most litigious of countries.
Pearson is a local resident and a regular customer of the dry cleaning business in a scruffy mall in the east of Washington DC.
The tale of his missing trousers began two years ago. He discovered that five suits were "uncomfortably tight" and asked the Chungs to do some alterations on the waistbands. He decided he would take them in one at a time. Pearson claims that when he took in the grey trousers with red stripes for the US$10.50 alteration on May 3, 2005, he was told they would be ready on May 6. Then he was told the trousers had been misplaced.
The loss and his inability to wear them for his first proud day in court as an administrative judge caused him "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort", he claims.
The Chungs, who have had their business for 12 years, agreed to compensate Pearson, offering first US$3000 and then US$4600.
Pearson declined and the Chungs raised their offer to US$12,000 - a lot more than the US$800 Pearson says he paid. But the judge refused even that amount. Instead he used his knowledge of the city's statutes to come up with the eye-watering compensation claim.
Pearson based his US$65,462,500 claim on two signs the Chungs had hung inside their dry cleaning store. One read "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and the other said "Same Day Service". Pearson argues that he is entitled to US$1500 a violation - US$1500 for each of the 120 days the two signs were in the Chungs' store. [He is multiplying each violation by three because he is suing the Chungs and their son separately.] He includes US$500,000 for "emotional damages" and US$542,500 in legal fees, even though he is representing himself.
He has asked for US$15,000 to cover the cost of hiring a rental car at weekends for the next 10 years. He argues that he now has to go to an alternative dry cleaners for the foreseeable future.
Campaigners have demanded action. The American Tort Reform Association has asked city officials to consider whether Pearson has the appropriate "judicial temperament" for his job.
The final twist to the story is that - according to the Chungs - the trousers turned up a few days after they went missing. Pearson denies they are the same pair but the Chungs and their lawyer are adamant. The case is due in court next month.
Infamous personal injury cases
Stella Liebeck, 81, of Albuquerque sued McDonald's in 1994 because its coffee was too hot. She was was burned after spilling her coffee and was awarded US$2.7 million punitive damages - lowered to US$480,000 ($650,000) on appeal.
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In 1996, Bennie Casson of Illinois, demanded US$100,000 from a strip club after a dancer slammed her breasts into his head causing a "bruised, contused, lacerated neck". The breasts of Susan Sykes, aka Busty Hart, supposedly caused him "emotional distress, mental anguish and indignity." The suit made him a laughing stock and his case ground to a halt. Three years later, he shot himself.
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In 2002, a man from Hot Springs, Montana sued Viacom for US$10 million claiming that its TV show Jackass plagiarised his name. The plaintiff's legal name was Jack Ass though he was born Bob Croft. It is not known if the case reached court.
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A store worker in West Virginia, Cheryl Vandevender, won US$2.7 million, later cut by about US$500,000, after she injured her back opening a pickle jar in 1997.
- INDEPENDENT
