OBITER

Who's Taking Who to the Cleaners
The judge who was seeking US$67 million from dry cleaners who had lost his pants has loosened the belt on his lawsuit. Now, he's asking for only US$54 million. Judge Pearson, a District of Columbia administrative law judge, first sued the South Korean owners of Custom Cleaners over a pair of pants that went missing two years ago. He is now focusing his claims on signs in the shop that claimed 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' and 'Same Day Service.' The signs have since been removed. Pearson, who is representing himself, said in an e-mail that the focus of the case, from the start, was based on the 'false, misleading and fraudulent advertisements displayed by the Chungs.' Lawyers from the Chungs have called the judge's claim `outlandish'.

Not a Veggie Table
A magistrate's court has ordered Malaysia's national airline Malaysian Airline System to pay a Brahmin Hindu close to S$10,000 compensate him for mental anguish suffered as a result of being served a chicken meal during a flight. Arvind Sharma, a cargo agent for Dell computers in India, experienced depression, shock, stress and humiliation after being served the chicken meal on the Malaysian Airline System flight from Bangalore to Kuala Lumpur four years ago despite having originally ordered a vegetarian meal. The court held that 'The tort committed upon him in this instance has been fortified by the evidence that he is a strict Brahmin who has never consumed meat in his life.'

Gender Equality?
A woman arrested in New York City for exposing her breasts has accepted a US$29,000 settlement from the city, her lawyer said. Jill Coccaro was arrested on a topless stroll two years ago, despite a 1992 state appeals court ruling that concluded women should have the same right as men to take off their shirts. Coccaro remained in custody for 12 hours before she was told prosecutors were not going to pursue charges. She subsequently won the civil rights settlement from the city, which did not admit or deny wrongdoing.

Rattle and Hum
One would think that it could not happen 75 years after Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 532, but Philadelphian Earl Hartman was more than a little rattled by something he says he found in a can of green beans: a snake head. Hartman said he found the reptile head on his plate, right between a chicken breast and buttered noodles and claims it came out of the green bean can. Hartman called the store where he bought the beans, and got a call back from Seneca Foods in upstate New York, where the vegetables were canned. The store conducted spot checks of other cans, but nothing out of the ordinary turned up, but similar cans have been removed from the shelves as a precaution.