MGM Did Not Invade Privacy, Jury Finds

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. didn’t invade the privacy of a Houston couple when it broadcast a death-notification phone call from a police officer, a state jury found.

The studio didn’t intentionally intrude on Bob and Marietta Marich’s privacy with the broadcast of the TV show, “L.A.P.D.: Life on the Beat,” the Los Angeles Superior Court jury found. Although the television film crew eavesdropped without consent, it did so inadvertently and the company isn’t liable for damages, jurors found.

The Marichs sued MGM for intrusion and eavesdropping on a phone call without consent, after the syndicated program’s February 1997 broadcast to about 2 million U.S. viewers. The couple had sought monetary damages for the mental anguish they said they endured as a result of their inclusion in the show.