A judge ruled Monday in favor of a dry cleaner that was sued for $54 million over a missing pair of pants.
The owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the city's consumer protection law by failing to live up to Roy L. Pearson's expectations of the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign once displayed in the store window, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled.
"A reasonable consumer would not interpret 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer's unreasonable demands" or to agree to demands that the merchant would have reasonable grounds for disputing, the judge wrote.
Bartnoff ordered Pearson to pay the court costs of defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung.
"Satisfaction guaranteed" is a standard sign in most business establishments. To sue a dry cleaners because they lost--then found--the slacks to your suit is ridiculous.
Pearson originally sued for multiple times the cost of the pants, plus the cost of renting a taxi to go to a different cleaner every week for a year. When the judge stated that Pearson hadn't proven that the pants returned to him by the cleaners weren't his, Pearson dropped that portion of his suit and focused on the "satisfaction guaranteed" sign in the cleaners' window.
Pearson was unavailable for comment. Unsurprising considering he got taken to the--ha ha!--cleaners.
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