Lawsuit of the Day

Lawsuit of the Day: The Brotherhood of the Litigation-Inducing Pants

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Do you miss Roy Pearson, the administrative law judge who sued his dry cleaners for $54 million over a lost pair of pants? If so, you might get a kick out of this tale, from the West Virginia Record:

In a case that mirrors a recent headline-grabbing lawsuit, a Charleston attorney claims a dry cleaner lost clothes he had left to be cleaned.

Richard D. Jones filed the suit July 25 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Pressed For Time and Lisa Williams.

Jones is an attorney for Flaherty, Sensabaugh and Bonasso.

Jones’s bio on the firm website shows that, interestingly enough, he’s a civil litigator on the defense side. How would he respond to a case like the one he just filed?
More after the jump.


This next part sounds like a plot line for Seinfeld, or Curb Your Enthusiasm:

According to the suit, Jones routinely left clothes for dry cleaning at Pressed For Time. During one instance, Jones claims his clothes were not returned and he was advised that his clothes were lost or may have been given to another customer.

A store employee asked Jones to be patient and wait to see in the clothes would reappear, which Jones claims he did, but the clothes did not reappear.

According to the suit, Jones has contacted Pressed For Time on several occasions and asked for reimbursement for his clothing and supplied an invoice showing the price of the clothing. Jones claims the company has failed to either return the clothing or reimburse him for the cost.

The article compares Jones’s case to that of Roy Pearson. But Jones’s claim for damages isn’t quite as aggressive. He’s seeking reimbursement for the value of the lost clothes — plus punitive damages.
Seeking punitives may be a bit much. But on its face, Jones’s lawsuit isn’t completely ridiculous. One wonders why Pressed for Time didn’t just reimburse Jones for the lost clothing, especially given his status as a lawyer.
(Tongue-in-cheek aside: If these lawsuits become a trend, maybe dry cleaners become reluctant to have lawyers as customers, just like some landlords try to avoid having attorneys as tenants.)
Charleston attorney sues over missing pants [West Virginia Record]

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