In a case that has received a lot of attention, the Chung family, Korean immigrant owners of Custom Cleaners in Washington, DC, not only won against an insane plaintiff, but were also awarded costs from the plaintiff.

The plaintiff, an administrative law judge named Roy Pearson who will hopefully lose his job someday very soon, had sued the cleaners for losing a pair of suit pants (which they found and tried to return to him) and for not having his pants done the next day. He argued that their “satisfaction guaranteed” sign opened them to a massive daily fine for every day that he wasn’t satisfied, and filed suit (pun intended) for $54 million (down from a prior claim of $67 million).

Quoting from an AP news story on the verdict:

District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that the Korean immigrant owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the city’s Consumer Protection Act by failing to live up to Roy L. Pearson’s expectations of the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign that was once placed in the store window.

“Plaintiff Roy L. Pearson, Jr. takes nothing from the defendants, and defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung are awarded the costs of this action against the plaintiff Roy L. Pearson, Jr.,” the ruling read.

Regardless of the current furor over the Senate Immigration Bill, I believe that America should welcome immigrants who truly come here to work, to integrate, and not to suckle off the teat of the American taxpayer. Not only do we need immigration for continued economic growth, but we also need them to fund Social Security which will be bankrupt even faster without immigrants than with them. Part of what attracts immigrants to America, especially truly entrepreneurial immigrants, is the idea that they’ll get opportunity and a fair shake from our theoretically free-market, capitalist system and ethical judicial system. Clearly, courts get things wrong…even our Supreme Court has been spectacularly wrong with disturbing frequency lately, but even that is far different from the outright corruption that infests judiciaries in many other parts of the world.

Today’s verdict sends exactly the right message to potential entrepreneurial immigrants: Just because you might get sued by a white guy with a government job doesn’t mean you’ll lose if your position is just. OK, it doesn’t mean you win, but at least you have a chance, and that’s probably better than where you live now.

Note: For those of you interested in reading the actual court findings, you can do so by clicking here: Read the FINDINGS