by Tom Leatherbury and Mike Raiff
The Fifth Circuit recently affirmed a summary judgment V&E won for CBS in a case involving a 48 HOURS report about the "Roby 43" - 43 West Texans who won a $46 million lottery jackpot in 1996.
48 HOURS chronicled events in Roby for more than a year following the jackpot win, exploring the question, "Does money buy happiness?" For Lance Green, one of the winners, ensuing events answered the question in the negative. Separated from his wife, Green was within days of finalizing the divorce when he won the lottery. His wife then sought part of the lottery winnings in the divorce settlement. During those proceedings, Green accused his wife of denying him access to her young daughter (whom he had helped raise since birth) until he gave her money. His wife denied those charges, and they ultimately reached a settlement that awarded her some of the lottery proceeds. When Green ran for mayor of Roby, his ex-wife accused him of sexually abusing her daughter, and he was indicted. Green denied the abuse charges and claimed his ex-wife fabricated the allegations to obtain more money from him, perhaps through a later civil lawsuit. The indictment was later dismissed.
In January 1998, 48 HOURS reported on the divorce dispute, the charges and countercharges, the election, and the events surrounding the indictment. Green’s ex-wife and her daughter sued CBS for libel and invasion of privacy. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of CBS holding that the broadcast was substantially true and had disclosed no private facts. In 2002 a unanimous panel of the Fifth Circuit affirmed. The Court held that CBS had broadcast an accurate account of competing charges between Green and his ex-wife.
After the Fifth Circuit ruled in the case, CBS aired the broadcast again. In October 2002, the United States Supreme Court denied the plaintiffs’ petition for writ of certiorari.
Tom Leatherbury and Mike Raiff in V&E’s Dallas office and Susanna M. Lowy, Anthony M. Bongiorno, and Nicholas E. Poser of the CBS Law Department represented CBS.
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