You Be the Judge: Are Your Pants Worth Millions? Part 2

Allen Ritchie • November 26, 2018

 

So many people have asked me about the $54 million lawsuit over a pair of pants (see You Be the Judge: Are Your Pants Worth Millions?) that I thought I would bring you up to date on some of the strange facts surrounding the case.

  • The pants owner (a judge) who brought the case eventually lost.
  • The missing pants were found a few days after the owner came to collect them, but he said they were the wrong pair. Those pants were eventually used as evidence in court along with the cleaner’s tags.
  • At one point the pants owner sued for attorney’s fees for representing himself.
  • Originally the pants owner demanded more than $1000 for the missing pants. The dry cleaners refused. The cleaners later offered $12,000 to settle, but the pants owner refused.
  • During the trials, the pants owner requested $500,000 in attorney fees plus $2 million for inconvenience and mental distress.
  • The pants owner wanted $10,000 to rent a car to drive to another dry cleaners.
  • At one trial, the pants owner broke down in tears explaining the loss of the pants.
  • The pants owner’s judgeship was not renewed. A panel noted the pants case as possible lack of judicial temperament.
  • It cost the dry cleaners $83,000 in attorney’s fees. They sued to get the pants owner to pay but later dropped the case when on-line fund raising collected $100,000.
  • Some writers have referred to the pants owner as “Judge Fancy Pants”.
  • The incident was part of the “Bottomless,” episode on  Law & Order  in 2008.

Speaking of television, you can join us on  NBC 15 LawCall  here in Mobile every Sunday night at 10:30 right after the news. We do a short show on tape during the football season but will take your calls live again after the first of the year.

Allen Ritchie

 

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