Closing Arguments in Suit Against MGM

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. should be held liable for invading the privacy of a Houston couple when it broadcast a death-notification phone call from a police officer, the couple’s lawyer told a state court jury in Los Angeles.

Bob and Marietta Marich sued MGM, which syndicated “L.A.P.D.: Life on the Beat,” after the show aired a videotape of Officer Eric Jackson phoning the couple to inform them of their son’s death. The Marichs were not informed that they were being recorded during the phone call.

The Marichs sued MGM for intrusion and eavesdropping on a phone call without their consent after the February 1997 broadcast of the show. The couple seeks damages for the mental anguish they endured as a result of their inclusion in the program.

“When a person can broadcast, barter and sell what they learned through eavesdropping, they truly are a tyrant,” Larry Watt, the couple’s attorney, told jurors during closing arguments.

The jury will consider only noneconomic damages, or money to compensate the Marichs for their alleged mental and emotional distress.

The jury trial before Judge James C. Chalfant of Los Angeles Superior Court began July 10.