Adventures In Dry-Cleaning

 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.  

Technological Nostalgia Part II

Once I had an assistant who obsessively saved every scrap of paper we produced. I recently found a notebook full of telephone call logs from 2002. Being a conservationist (i.e. cheap) I am using these old telephone logs as scrap paper, yet I am also fascinated reading the the messages I received back then. It’s like a quick trip back in time. These are a few observations.

1. I used to get a lot more phone calls before the eventual domination of email. On the day I am looking at I had over 30 calls.
2. I had a number of calls from a client that I did a lot of work for who eventually filed bankruptcy, leaving me with a large amount of unpaid fees.
3. I had several calls that day from a good friend who passed away shortly thereafter.
4. The international side of the music business used to be a lot more fun. A bunch of the calls that day dealt with a client’s record deal in England.
5. I am still unnerved when I see the message “needs to speak to you TODAY”.
6. At the time, I had several calls from a client who had discovered several unpublished photographs of Elvis Presley—that was fun.
7. I am gratified to see 7 or 8 names on that list of clients I still do work for today. I am grateful.
On the whole, I don’t know what’s more efficient, email or the phone. Getting a lot of phone calls and/or emails is evidence that your business is heading in the right direction but it can still be overwhelming and it can be a challenge to respond to everyone in a timely manner.

Thank You, Thank You Very Much

I spent the afternoon in a fairly useless pursuit of some arcane information about a Tennessee statute. However, as is often the case when doing research on the Internet, I stumbled upon a fascinating website:

www.preslaw.net.

This website consists of a collection of all the decided cases involving the King. This stuff makes for fascinating reading. When I was in law school, I did a long research project on the right of publicity, which essentially did not exist in Tennessee until Elvis died in 1977. Now, reading this website, I realize that Elvis' litigious afterlife has the makings of a law school class, if not an entire curriculum.