The Legal Times reported today that Judge Roy Pearson, who lost a bench trial in June in his $54 million lost-pants lawsuit against Custom Cleaners, has appealed.
Pearson, who shed actual tears during the trial and yet seems to have garnered no sympathy, filed on Tuesday with the D.C. Court of Appeals despite the fact that the defendants withdrew their pending motion for attorney fees. The Chung family said it had been forced to spend $82,000 in fees to defend against Pearson's claims, but in an effort to "extend an olive branch" -- and probably also because they have already collected nearly $100,000 via fundraisers and donations -- they withdrew their fee motion on Monday. Pearson appealed anyway.
He will lose. But not for a while -- the Legal Times noted that the average overall time necessary to resolve an appeal to the D.C. court is 575 days, so Pearson will be entertaining the world for at least another year, and of course could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. And I wouldn't rule out the International Court of Justice after that. All for a case that really belonged before Judge Wapner, if anywhere at all.
Chris Manning, the Chungs' attorney, said yesterday that Pearson had chosen "desperate irrationality over common sense" in deciding to appeal. I feel sorry for his clients, of course, but you know, if people didn't choose desperate irrationality over common sense on a fairly regular basis, I wouldn't have nearly as much to write about.
Link: Law.com
