Santa's in Court ?!?!?

Santa was in court today! The People’s Court that is. Seems he sent his best red suit out to the cleaner’s and the fur came back pink!!!! It was new for this past holiday season and cost him $800. It was ruined!

That particular cleaner claimed to have experience cleaning Santa suits (They say they do about 10 a year.) and were concerned that his suit did not contain a care label. The receptionist claims to have warned him the color may bleed. When he went back to pick it up, all of the fur was bright pink!! The cleaner said he’d fix it. After a run around of several weeks, Santa returned to get his “fixed” suit and found it in pieces. The red parts in one pile, the fur in another. The cleaner had tried to bleach the fur. That didn’t work.

The cleaner tried to claim this was a manufacturer’s defect. He claimed the back of the receipt denies liability for color loss. BUT, don’t mess with Santa. Santa pointed out the suit didn’t lose color but, instead, gained color!! (He had a point there!) Santa believed the bleached fur had lost its luster and just wouldn’t do. And paid $500 to have all of the fur replaced with new fur.

Judge Milian listened patiently to both parties. She agreed the cleaner had not truly stated they might not be able to satisfactorily do the job in light of the garment not having any specific care instructions and should have had Santa sign some sort of waiver. They didn’t. She felt the cleaner could have done more to make the claim right when the problem occurred.

On the other hand, she also felt Santa went overboard. The bleached fur was bright white but may well have lost some of its glow but she questioned whether that glow would have faded anyway with a cleaning even if it had stayed white. She believed the fur would have been just fine if reattached in its bleached state. In her opinion, Santa should have taken the bleached fur pieces to his seamstress and allowed her to reattach them to the suit to his satisfaction. Such action would have cost considerably less as he would have only paid for the labor not for all new fur.

Santa won his case but only to the tune of $150!!! So, if the pile under the tree is just a little smaller this year, blame the cleaner. If Santa had gotten a larger award maybe he could have spent a little more on you!

As for the cleaner, he shouldn’t expect too much. Santa’s definitely assigned him to the naughty list.

Moral: Don’t mess with Santa!