Target sells bedsheets that say that they're "100% cotton" and have a "800 Thread Count." Plaintiff files suit, claiming that's not true; that expert lab testing reveals that the thread count is actually only 288, not 800. Plus, he says, it's actually impossible to be 800 count if it's really 100% cotton.
But the district court (Judge Huff, down here in San Diego) dismisses the case on the pleadings, saying that if something's impossible, then as a matter of law, a reasonable consumer wouldn't be deceived by it.
The Ninth Circuit reverses. Rightfully so.
It's one thing to say something that everyone knows must be puffery and untrue. Things like "Drinking Red Bull takes you to the moon!" (I just made that up.) No one's going to think that what you're saying is meant to be true.
That common sense principle, by contrast, is utterly inapplicable here. A reasonable person who reads on a label that the bedsheets are 100% cotton and 800 count will definitely think those statements are intended to be true, and are accurate. And I say that because, among other things, I'm precisely such a reasonable consumer (IMHO), and that's exactly what I'd think.
Maybe there's some super-smart expert in cotton and thread count out there who already knows that you can't thread pure cotton at 800 threads per square inch. But that's not normal. Normal consumers (like me and, probably, you) don't know that. Or at least didn't know that until today.
So good job by Judge de Alba reversing the dismissal. In an extremely persuasive and well-written opinion, no less.
