Richmond, VA - Food Lion Inc. attorneys asked a federal appeals court to reinstate a $5.5 million damage award against ABC News in a case that challenged the use of undercover reporting in television news.
Food Lion attorneys told a three-judge panel of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that a Greensboro, N.C., federal judge erred in reducing the jury award to $315,000 after the jury verdict was handed down in 1997.
"The damage claim flows from the use of illegally obtained information," Food Lion attorney Richard Wyatt said when asked by the judges why the company pursued common law claims instead of a traditional libel suit against ABC.
Food Lion in 1992 sued ABC, now a unit of Walt Disney Co.(DIS - news), seeking damages over a PrimeTime Live news magazine story based in part on reporting by two ABC producers who worked undercover in three Food Lion stores.
The story focused on whether Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion sought to boost store profits by selling repackaged meat, whether fresh or not, and pressuring employees to work unpaid overtime.
Food Lion filed a civil lawsuit alleging fraud, trespass and disloyalty by ABC and the undercover reporters, who were hired by the grocery chain after falsifying information on their applications and later took hidden cameras into the stores.
ABC attorneys argued that Food Lion should not be allowed to collect any damages because it did not pursue libel claims. ABC said Food Lion also was not materially harmed when the reporters aimed hidden cameras at fellow workers while on the clock for Food Lion.
"They did intend to do their Food Lion jobs, but while they were doing their jobs, they also observed, like a fly on the wall, what any other employee would see," ABC attorney Paul Niemeyer said.
The case is being watched closely as a test of the media's use of hidden cameras in investigative reporting, and the use of common law claims by companies seeking to bypass the difficult legal challenge of proving libel.
To win damages in a libel case, Food Lion would have had to prove that ABC hurt the grocery chain's reputation by airing a story that was false even though the broadcaster knew the story was false when it was aired.
"Truth is a fairly complicated concept. What (viewers) saw were sound bites," Wyatt said when asked by the judges whether the story was basically true.
Food Lion, which operates about 1,100 stores in 11 states under the Food Lion and Kash n' Karry names, is 52 percent-owned by Delhaize (DELBt.BR), one of Belgium's largest public companies.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
P.O. Box 553
Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-757-4010
Fax: 631-757-4060
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com
Return to Home Page