WASHINGTON, D.C. — D.C. administrative judge Roy Pearson filed an appeal this morning to overturn the verdict in the ongoing $54 million lawsuit he brought against Custom Cleaners operators So Jin and Soo Chung over an allegedly lost pair of pants. Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled against Pearson in D.C. Superior Court in June, rejecting his claim and charging him the Chungs’ court costs.
The defendants in the now-infamous case withdrew a motion to recover more than $100,000 in additional legal fees and related costs from Pearson yesterday. The defendants saw the move as an “olive branch” that could have forestalled Pearson from filing an appeal by the August 15 deadline. A legal-defense fund and cocktail fundraiser held last month would “almost completely pay for their losses and expenses,” according to papers filed in D.C. Superior Court by Chris Manning, the Chungs’ counsel and partner in the D.C. law firm Manning & Sossamon.
“The Chungs continue to be baffled by Mr. Pearson’s actions, but are very confident they will prevail on appeal and end this case once and for all,” Manning says. “The Chungs have done everything possible to put this nightmare behind them and return to their normal lives: They have won resoundingly at trial, raised donations from gracious private donors to pay for their litigation costs, let Mr. Pearson off the hook for personally paying their expenses and extended an olive branch to Mr. Pearson in hopes that he would end this matter and not appeal.
“Mr. Pearson had a choice today — to make peace and acknowledge the Chungs’ amazing generosity in absolving him of paying their fees, or to continue with this ridiculous case and meritlessly appeal,” Manning says. “Mr. Pearson, unfortunately, chose desperate irrationality over common sense and decided to appeal, unnecessarily costing the parties more wasted time and the D.C. taxpayers more wasted money.”
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