A Swift Kick in the Pants

The "Case of the Purloined Pants" continues. For earlier posts on the ALJ from DC, Roy Pearson, who took his dry cleaners to the cleaners, see They Beat the Pants off Him and Hell Hath No Fury . . .

Despite the scathing opinion from Judge Bartnoff, which she issued when ruling against Pearson, the Washington Post's Marc Fisher of Raw Fisher notes, in The $54 Million Pants Suit That Wouldn't Die:

He's baaaa-ack: Roy Pearson, the D.C. administrative law judge who filed, fought and lost a $54 million lawsuit against the Korean immigrants who own his neighborhood dry cleaners, chose the Fourth of July holiday to make it clear that he will not be going away.

Despite a clear finding by D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff that Pearson's case against Custom Cleaners had no merit and that the cleaners' possible misplacing of a pair of Pearson's pants was not worth a penny to the plaintiff, Pearson is back. He wrote to defense lawyer Christopher Manning this week to let the Chung family know that Pearson plans to file today a motion arguing that Bartnoff failed to address Pearson's legal claims and asking the judge to reverse her verdict in the case.

A Loser's Loser. Not only did he lose -- badly -- but he remains convinced in his own mind of the justice of his case. He's about to find true justice, if the Judge rules against him in the fee claim filed by the Chungs. The Post reports, Couple Asks Judge To Order Plaintiff To Pay Legal Fees:

A dry cleaning business is turning the tables on a man who unsuccessfully sued the firm for $54 million, asking a judge to order him to cover $83,000 in legal fees.

The motion, filed in D.C. Superior Court, comes less than two weeks after a judge denied Roy Pearson's claim over a pair of pants that allegedly went astray. Pearson accused Custom Cleaners of failing to honor the 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' sign posted at the shop.

Based upon the Judge's original ruling, I would expect that she will grant a fee award (of course, Pearson won't be able to pay). The next (hopefully) loser part of this case is yet to come. Marc Fisher also provides an update on Pearson job-status (his ALJ position expired & has yet to be renewed or otherwise acted upon):

And to complete the pants update, there's still no action from the panel that will determine whether Pearson is to be reappointed for a full, 10-year term as an administrative law judge. At Mayor Adrian Fenty's request, the panel put off consideration of Pearson's case until the mayor had a chance to fill a vacancy on the commission on the tenure of ALJs. Now that Fenty has made that appointment, the panel is apparently waiting for Bartnoff's decision on the attorney's fees aspect of the pants case, which could be some weeks away.

And finally, for a little extra dirt on Pearson, one of the commenter's to Fisher's blog pointed to this site, ShoutPost, which says:

In 2004 Mr. Pearson was accused of corruption for giving his son's girlfriend a city job - after which it was revealed Mr. Pearson was actually sleeping with his son's girlfriend on regular occasion. During his tenure as an administrative judge for Washington DC he was accused of smoking crack cocaine in the courthouse washroom, an accusation supported by camera video that later went 'missing' from the evidence room Mr. Pearson had access to himself.

As I said -- an all around loser.

UPDATE (7/15): Pearson not only asked the Judge to reconsider her decision, he filed his own request for an award of attorneys fee. Marc Fisher notes in astonishment, Pants News: America Held Hostage, Day Too Many:

Plaintiff therefore seeks reasonable attorneys' fees in the amount of $425,000 for excellent legal work performed under extremely trying circumstances - including holding down a more than full time job.

He really wants to piss off the Judge, I suppose. And he's done an excellent job to ensure that will happen.

Tags: Law, News, Pearson