What do Sixty-Five Million Dollar Pants Look Like?

When I first heard about this story, about how a D.C. administrative law judge was suing a dry cleaning business $65M for lost pants under a consumer protection law, it made me wonder whether it wouldn't just be better to settle these things under a more equitable common law than strict liability statutes. The law gives $1,500 per day per violation. I'm sure the law does a lot of good, but I can't imagine it doing enough good to justify these poor dry cleaners from having to sustain $65M in damages for something so silly. Just let judges sort it out through tort law.