Judge Who Lost Pant Suit Loses Job

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Judge Who Lost Pant Suit Loses Job

By Keith L. Alexander
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 31, 2007; Page B04

Roy L. Pearson Jr., the administrative law judge who lost his $54 million lawsuit against a Northeast Washington dry cleaner, lost his job yesterday and was ordered to vacate his office, sources said.

Pearson, 57, who had served as a judge for two years, was up for a 10-year term at the Office of Administrative Hearings, but a judicial committee last week voted against reappointing him.

The panel had a seven-page letter hand-delivered to Pearson about 3:30 p.m., directing him to leave his office by 5 p.m. Pearson's term ended in May, at the height of his battle with the dry cleaners. Since then, he has remained on the payroll, making $100,000 a year as an attorney adviser.

A source familiar with the committee's meetings said Pearson's lawsuit played little role in the decision not to reappoint him.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/30/AR2007103002058.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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It should be "pants," not "pant," but that's besides the point. And I do mean "besides" and not "beside."

[mac56]

1. Karmic justice.

:applause:

[april]

7. Yes : )

[harun]

10. First thing that came to my mind too. Just because it was

"legal" for him to bring a case that didn't mean it wouldn't eventually bite him somewhere else.

:nopity:

[Richard Steele]

2. Good. With judgement as POOR as his, he shouldn't be Judging. nm

[DCKit]

3. Not judgement, but greed and avarice.

He put those poor people through hell and I hope he has no more involvement in the law forever.

[rox63]

5. That couple lost their business because of his lawsuit

I hope this gives them a smile. :)

[NeedleCast]

9. Actually they didn't

They just closed that particular clearners. THey have another one out in the 'burbs. Not trying to defend the judge or anything, he's a dick, but just wanted peopele to know the dry clearner owners are doing okay at least.

[Dr. Strange]

15. That's good to hear.

Although I was also hoping for a counter-suit. But I'm glad they're still in business.

Maybe they should offer to hire Mr. Pearson--apparently he needs a job...

[cstanleytech]

8. Eh, way things are going in this country Bush will probably

give the guy a pat on the back and say he is doing a heck of a job and then offer him the top spot in the DOJ and of course most of the republicans in washington like usual would bow before the bush altar and vote yes for him.

[calimary]

14. Hah! Yeah, There's our next Attorney General nominee.

I would NOT be surprised. Poor judgment is a prerequisite to taking any gigs with the bush bunch. Poor judgment, petty vindictiveness, and complete lack of scruples.

BTW, Welcome to DU!

[zabet]

4. Poetic justice. nt

[liberal N proud]

6. It doesn't bother you to see guys like this lose their jobs

I usually don't enjoy anyones loss but this is just payback for this moron.

[Mz Pip]

11. I wish he would get

billed for the court costs, too and also the legal expenses for the dry cleaners. What a waste of tax dollars.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Igel]

12. "Pant suit"?

Poor accidental pun.

"Pants suit"? Standardly incorrect, but gaining ground. In the "industry" the people, IIRC, tend to follow the kinds of grammar we had when I was a kid 40 years ago: "pant style, pant pattern, pant piece". People not in the industry tend to say things like "pants pattern". But note that "pant suit"--the woman's outfit--is from a few decades back, and presumably wrong for some people, were it not already a separate word.

The rule used to be that only in very exceptional circumstances do you take a plural and make it the first element of a compound. "Toothpaste", for example. Not "teethpaste", even though few use toothpaste for a single tooth.

"Scissor craft" follows the older rule and is still standard for people writing about it professionally and selling materials. "Scissors craft" seems to be gaining ground.

Think of it not as the result of an edict of the Grammar Society for English Speakers after their annual meeting and held a vote on the One True Grammar for English (v. 23.35.31c), but a language. Also consider that language changes, and isn't just what's written in a textbook: There are styles and registers that cross with social dialects (with one kind of social dialect being prescriptivist, another kind being that of 20-year-olds, another kind being that of octogenarians, in general).

Oddly, you seem to like the old standard for "besides" and the relatively recently innovated rule (as least for the standard variety of English) for "pant(s) suit". Odd mix.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

16. Pant, besides, etc.

Oddly, you seem to like the old standard for "besides" and the relatively recently innovated rule (as least for the standard variety of English) for "pant(s) suit". Odd mix.

Thanks for raising those points. As I prepared my post this morning, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to use "beside" or "besides." Accordingly, before posting, I looked it up in the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, the sixth trade edition, that I keep beside my computer. No, kids, I'm not making that up. You should see my stack of Bibles. A literal one.

(For those not following the story, "beside" means "at the side of," and "besides" means "in addition to.")

Pant v. pants: I was born when Truman was president, and I had some sticklers for grammar along the way. I gladly buy those grammar and usage books when I see them reasonably priced at rummage sales. E-v-e-r-y-o-n-e should have one of those. When it's cold outside, I put on a pair of pants in the morning, not a pant. It rankles me when I see newspaper advertising for a "pant sale." It doesn't look right to me. The WaPo headline called the thing we're talking about, a lawsuit about a pair of pants, a "pant suit," and I copied the headline the way they wrote it. I could ask their ombudsman, actually an ombudsperson, for her comment. Whoops, there goes my credibility.

I've been out of telemetry range of the Grammar Society for English Speakers mothership for a while, so I've been winging it. Please tell them to send more beer.

Thanks again for writing.

[blondie58]

13. karma is a bitch