HOW MUCH ARE YOUR FAVORITE PANTS WORTH?
One Man Estimated His at $54 Million
Everyone knows that the perfect pair of pants can be hard to come by, but are they worth $54 million? Administrative Judge Roy L. Pearson had a favorite pair of pants, but in 2007, he claimed that Custom Cleaners lost them and returned a completely different pair instead. It all began when Pearson took his pants to the Washington, D.C., dry cleaners for alterations worth $10.50. The pants were sent in error to the incorrect dry cleaner, so Pearson’s pickup was delayed by several days. Once the pants were returned, despite bearing all the correct tags and matching his receipt, Pearson declared that the pants were not his. When the dry cleaner refused his demand for $1,000 compensation, he decided it was time for legal action. Pearson originally sued the cleaner’s owners, Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung, and Ki Y. Chung, for a whopping $67 million in
damages but later reduced the claim to a far more reasonable $54 million. In his suit, Pearson requested $3 million for mental distress, $90,000 for a rental car to visit another dry
Even though the Chungs offered him a $12,000 settlement to make the case go away, Pearson persevered.
cleaner, and $500,000 in attorney’s fees (Pearson represented himself). At the heart of his claim, though, was the company’s failure to live up to their “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Same Day Service” signs in the window.
He ultimately lost his case. At the end of the trial, the judge declared
that no reasonable person would consider the signs at Custom Cleaners to be an unconditional promise — and also that Pearson had failed to prove the returned pants weren’t his. The Chungs ultimately recovered their court costs via a fundraiser, and Pearson lost his judicial appointment. Unsurprisingly, this prompted another lawsuit, which he also lost. In 2020, Pearson was suspended from practicing law for 90 days as a result of his actions in Pearson v. Chung . But for bringing new meaning to the phase “I’ll sue the pants off of you,” his place in legal history is secure.
The media had a field day, joking about the case as a “pantsuit” and inspiring a “Law & Order” episode called “Bottomless.” Pearson seemed to relish the spectacle, calling his lawsuit “an awesome responsibility” in court and breaking down into tears on the stand. He also called a witness who compared the Chungs to Nazis.
WAIT, I CAN GET AN IN-HOME DUI?
Learn the Facts Before It’s Too Late
There are situations when someone is arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) when the police never actually saw them driving — so they perform an in-home DUI arrest. Usually, this will happen after an accident, when someone wrote down a license plate number after seeing an incident and police tracked it to the owner's home, or if officers simply follow someone to their place of residence. In some cases, officers may check to see if a car is in the garage, then knock on the door and pull someone out of their house for a DUI investigation, which is followed by an arrest. The general rule is that the police need a warrant to enter a home, although there are certain exceptions they may try to use. Usually, however, they try getting consent rather than spending the time or effort contacting a judge for a warrant. Police may knock on the door or ring the bell, and when
the person answers, they’ll ask them to come outside to talk to them; when they do, the officers are well on their way to conducting an investigation. If they get admissions from the person that yes, they do have a car and that’s the make, model, and license number and that they were driving it — officers are well on their way to having enough probable cause to make a lawful arrest. There are many defenses to these types of cases, but to avoid arrest and contact with the police, remember, you don’t have to answer the door. You aren’t obligated to talk to police officers; you have the right to remain silent. If they have enough information for a warrant, let them get a warrant and come back with it. All of this will take time and effort from the
police, and they may or may not go through it, but if you come down and you open the door and have a consensual encounter with police, you’re more likely to be arrested for DUI (or any other crime) than if you had chosen to leave the door shut. There may be exigent circumstances or emergency situations, such as a hot pursuit where police followed you to your house. However, in normal circumstances, you don’t have to answer the door. People can take a shower or turn on the TV, or they can sit down and have a beer in their own house. This makes it almost impossible for a prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what that person’s alcohol level was earlier when they were driving. If you’ve received an in-home DUI arrest, don’t hesitate to call our expert team at the Law Offices of Mark Rosenfeld!
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