Consumer Law

$54M Pants Suit Litigant Back in Court

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He’s lost his administrative law judge post and his initial efforts to sue the pants off his neighborhood dry cleaner for losing his.

But that isn’t stopping Roy Pearson. He was back in court today to appeal the loss of his $54 million case.

Pearson is appealing a superior court judge’s decision that the cleaners didn’t violate consumer protection laws by failing to live up to its posted “satisfaction guaranteed” pledge.

“This is not about a pair of suit pants,” Pearson, representing himself, told a three-judge panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals, according to the Washington Post. Pearson is accusing the dry cleaners of fraud, and argued today that the term “satisfaction guaranteed” is “very subjective” and with “no parameters at all.”

But at least one appeals court judge appeared exasperated when Pearson could provide no previous cases to support his argument. The Post reports that Judge Michael W. Farrell at one point threw up his hands and said, “Where’s the fraud?”

Pearson has also filed a separate suit to get his job back and for $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

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