Judge Slashes Penalty in TV Expose Case

Capital Cities-ABC Inc. will have to pay Food Lion only $315,000 rather than the $5.5-million jury award for a hidden-camera expose that accused the grocery chain of selling rat-gnawed cheese and rotting meat, a federal judge ruled. In a 34-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Carlton Tilley of Raleigh, N.C., gave the company 14 days to accept the reduction or face a retrial of the punitive damages phase of the trial. “The ratio of overall punitive damage award assessed against Capital Cities-ABC Inc. to the compensatory damage award is approximately 2,857 to 1. A ratio of 2,857 to 1 is certainly suspect,” Tilley wrote. In January, a jury awarded Food Lion $1,402 in compensatory damages for fraud, trespass and breach of loyalty for the report that aired Nov. 5, 1992, on ABC’s “PrimeTime Live.”