Ex-Judge Who Filed $54M ‘Pants Suit’ Appeals Dismissal of Job-Loss Claim

The now-former Washington, D.C., administrative law judge who made international headlines after he filed a $54 million lawsuit against his dry cleaner over a missing pair of trousers is back in court again.

Roy Pearson Jr., who also lost the so-called pants suit case, plans to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn a federal judge's dismissal of the wrongful termination claim he brought against the district, reports the Blog of Legal Times.

He contended in the termination suit that the district unconstitutionally retaliated against him for exercising his right to litigate the pants suit by failing to appoint him to another 10-year term as an administrative law judge. But U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle held in a 37-page July ruling (PDF) dismissing Pearson's retaliation complaint that the pants suit did not qualify as protected speech because it did not address a matter of public concern.

“The mere fact that plaintiff characterizes his status as that of a private attorney general does not alter the general nature of his lawsuit, which more properly should be characterized as a personal vendetta against a dry cleaners over a pair of pants,” Huvelle wrote.

Pearson filed his appearance today, pro se, concerning his planned appeal of Huvelle's ruling, the law blog reports.