Washington - (Ass Mess): 'In God We Trust' is the holy mantra of the US financial system. And, according to a Washington judge, 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' and 'Same Day Service' is the dry cleaning industry's equivalent of that mantra which, if violated over a couple of pairs of trousers, will cost a Fort Lincoln dry cleaners $67 million in damages.
"Ya don't mess with me," Judge Roy Pearson said this week as he sued Jim and Soo Chung of Custom Cleaners for the record-breaking damages after a series of blunders that almost left him bare-assed proverbially speaking.
The dispute goes back to 2002 when the judge accepted the shop's $150 compensation for loss of a pair of trousers.
But when a second pair also went missing Pearson decide to fight back by homing in on the shop's proclaimed Satisfaction Guaranteed and Same Day Service advertising which he says is a contractual point in legal argument.
The trial starts next month and has attracted a lot of publicity.
The Chung family says it's insurance won't cover even a tiny percentage of the claimed $67 million damages and that the judge is 'one big nutter' to pursue them in such a dogged way.
But Pearson is adamant: "I'm making a stand for everybody who's ever been maligned and taken to the cleaners by taking these dry cleaners to the cleaners myself."
