HT to April Reign: There's no doubt there are a lot of frivolous lawsuits out there, and this one involving a judge who took the phrase "satisfaction guaranteed" serious and sued a Korean family for $54 million for losing his pants at their dry cleaning outfit took the cake. Thankfully, a DC judge today dismissed the case as patently silly -- and worse, the judge who filed the suit could lose his job and be forced to pay the couple's legal bills; somewhat rare in the States where "loser pays" is actually the exception and not the rule.
Why did the aggrieved judge -- one Roy Pearson -- decide to file suit when the defendants (Soo, Jin Nam and Ki Y. Chung) offered more than reasonable compensation? Could it be, as WaPo reports, he was living off his credit cards at the time he got his judgeship and decided this could be a way of paying off his bills? Or is it just because it's DC, which isn't really a city or a state but a fiefdom under the direct control of Congress and whose "home rule" council simply doesn't have the powers a state legislature would have to enact tort reform and stop this utter nonsensical action?
Two things are clear from this: One, some way to end this madness is badly, terribly needed and it has to level the playing field between the powerful and powerless. Two, it's way past time for Congress to make DC a state. Because when all is said and done, Pearson and his targets still don't have the right to vote -- the only capital city in the entire free world with this ignominious distinction; and next time Pearson may find the tables are turned on him and Congress will still turn deaf ears on its peasants.
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