I recently read about the so called, "pants lawsuit", Pearson v. Chung, in which an administrative law judge sued a dry cleaner for $67, 000,000.00 over allegedly losing a pair of slacks. The case dragged on for years before Pearson lost both at trial and on appeal. Before it was all over though the dry cleaner had to close his business and incurred almost $100,000.00 in legal fees (which were recovered thanks to several fund raisers).
The case led to the District of Columbia Board of Professional Responsibility seeking to suspend Pearson's law license for engaging in
frivolous litigation.
Although I was unaware of this infamous case, I have a lot of sympathy for the dry cleaner because it reminded me of one of my favorite clients, the late Phil Efron owner of Nashville's Douglas Corner Cleaners and Entertainer Wardrobe Services (which was next door to the equally famous Douglas Corner which just closed). I could write an entire chapter on how I met Phil Efron but when he opened his dry cleaners, we worked out a barter system – I traded legal services for dry cleaning.
This led to some interesting adventures. Phil had been a dry cleaner in Las Vegas and had actually worked for Elvis Presley at one point. He was the guy who made those scarves that the King threw out to his fans. At some point, Phil decided to sell replicas of the scarves in various collector's magazines. I remember his ad ran something like, "We made them for Elvis now we'll make them for you". Inevitably, Phil received the cease and desist letter from the Estate of Elvis Presley. Phil asked me to deal with the estate's lawyer on his behalf. I researched everything I could about the right of publicity, First Amendment law, etc. and called E.P.'s lawyer. He was very amiable and polite but after I finished my spiel , he basically said, "We represent Elvis Presley and we will sue your client into the ground…thank you very much.” Phil stopped selling the scarves, although I know I have one around here somewhere.
Our second case was more successful. Phil had been sued by a bride to be who claimed that the dry cleaner had shrunk her wedding dress. The case went to court. It didn't help that my former law partner's cousin showed up as a witness for the plaintiff. However, we had an expert witness, the head of the Tennessee Association of Dry Cleaners who testified that it is essentially impossible to shrink a garment in only one specific area – in this case the waist. I wisely resisted the urge to demand that the plaintiff try on the garment. We won; the case was dismissed.
I did a lot of other work for Phil and was sorry that he decided to sell the business, but it had taken a toll on him. I gained a healthy respect for the job these people do and the level of service that they must provide on a daily basis. I miss Phil. I also miss those freshly ironed shirts.
