Ew, ew, ew: Food Lion vs. Abc

I remember seeing the Food Lion episode of PrimeTime Live as a small child and being horrified. It’s now in my casebook:

Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 194 F.3d 505 (4th Cir. N.C. 1999)
Two ABC television reporters, after using false resumes to get jobs at Food Lion, Inc. supermarkets, secretly videotaped what appeared to be unwholesome food handling practices.
“Unwholesome” is an understatement:
In early 1992 producers of ABC’s PrimeTime Live program received a report alleging that Food Lion stores were engaging in unsanitary meat-handling practices. The allegations were that Food Lion employees ground out-of-date beef together with new beef, bleached rank meat to remove its odor, and re-dated (and offered for sale) products not sold before their printed expiration date. The producers recognized that these allegations presented the potential for a powerful news story, and they decided to conduct an undercover investigation of Food Lion.

More on the meat:
Some of the videotape was eventually used in a November 5, 1992, broadcast of PrimeTime Live. ABC contends the footage confirmed many of the allegations initially leveled against Food Lion. The broadcast included, for example, videotape that appeared to show Food Lion employees repackaging and redating fish that had passed the expiration date, grinding expired beef with fresh beef, and applying barbecue sauce to chicken past its expiration date in order to mask the smell and sell it as fresh in the gourmet food section. The program included statements by former Food Lion employees alleging even more serious mishandling of meat at Food Lion stores across several states. The truth of the PrimeTime Live broadcast was not an issue in the litigation we now describe.
That’s the crazy part of the litigation. Food Lion is not filing a defamation suit here. The nast is caught on tape.
This case is in the “agency/fiduciary duty” section of my corporations book. Food Lion is only suing because the reporters did an undercover investigation by using fake names/resumes.

The court upheld a $2 (yes, two-dollar) verdict for Food Lion, but chucked the $5 million punitive damage verdict for fraud. I’m still amazed that Food Lion is in business. I wouldn’t even buy Cheerios from them.