Statutory Damages - Pants Suit Goes to Trial

Judge Roy L. Pearson has apparently reduced his demands for damages from $65 million to $54 million as the gripping trial unfolds.

His opening statement included the following:

“Never before in recorded history have a group of defendants engaged in such misleading and unfair business practices...”

He called an 89 year old witness who compared the cleaners to Nazi.

When describing how his pants allegedly went missing, Judge Pearson reportedly had to leave the courtroom to compose himself:

Pearson also called himself as a witness, saying his problems began in May 2005 when he brought in several suits for alterations. A pair of pants from a blue and maroon suit was missing when he requested it two days later. He said Soo Chung tried to give him a pair of charcoal gray pants.

As Pearson explained that those weren't the pants for the suit, he choked up and left the courtroom crying after asking [Judge] Bartnoff for a break.

This litigation is based upon civil statutory damages, a concept imported from the USA into Canadian copyright law in 1997 mainly at the behest of the music industry.

HK