Korean cleaners prevail in court

WASHINGTON ―The South Korean immigrant owners of a dry cleaning shop, who on Monday won a $54 million lawsuit over a missing pair of trousers, said they are willing to forgive the man who dragged them through court over the past two years.
“Whether it’s a victory or a loss, there is nothing left but scars,” Chung Jin-nam told reporters after the court ruled in the couples’ favor in a case that became a symbol of the United States’ lawsuit-happy legal system.
Roy L. Pearson, an administrative law judge, had sued Chung, his wife and son after a pair of trousers from his suit went missing at the Customs Cleaners. He accused the defendants of not living up to a store sign that read, “Satisfaction Guaranteed,” and he sought daily fines of $1,500 under a Washington, D.C., consumer protection law.
The Chung family said Pearson refused to accept the trousers when they found them a few days later. Pearson said they were not his. “We will keep them in the store and give them back to him if he wants them,” Chung said through a translator.
Pearson said during the trial he would keep $2.5 million for himself and use the remainder of the award to encourage others to file similar lawsuits.
“A reasonable consumer would not interpret ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer’s unreasonable demands or to accede to demands that the merchant has reasonable grounds to dispute,” the court ruling said.
Pearson must pay several thousand dollars in filing fees and other court costs incurred by the defendants. The Chung family will also ask the judge to require Pearson to pay their legal bills, a sum defense attorney Christopher Manning said amounts to more than $100,000.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform applauded the ruling.
“Businesses large and small across America every day must deal with extortionist plaintiffs’ lawyers like Judge Pearson,” it said in its statement.
The instutue is planning a fundraiser on July 24 to collect donations to help the Chungs.
The couple said after the trial that they would accept Pearson’s business again if he chooses to return to their store. But they have decided not to put up their “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign again.
Yonhap/Reuters