We’ve heard about a lot of strange court cases lately, but this one might take the cake. A U.S. district judge in Utah has just refused to grant a new trial for former Amway distributors who were convicted of spreading falser rumors about Proctor and Gamble.
Apparently, a high ranking Amway distributor, Randy Haugen, along with three other distributors spread rumors via a telephone message claiming that P&G was involved in satanic worship and worshiped the devil. The message named over 40 P&G products and told listeners to buy Amway products instead. Evidence showed that the message reached almost 100,000 people through the Amway voice mail system. P&G claims that the message cost them in sales.
The case dragged on for some time, but finally, after a two-week trial in 2007, Amway dealer Randy Haugen and three others were ordered to pay P&G $19.25 million to compensate for lost sales.
The defendants asked for a new trial saying that the evidence did not support such a huge claim and that the jury used improper information to calculate the amount of money the defendants should pay in damages and lawyer fees.
Amway Corp. was originally named in the suit, however, the four defendants were not employees of the company, but independent business owners, and Amway was dismissed as a defendant. This is certainly a lucky break for Amway, although not so lucky for the four defendants who now have to come up with a way to cough up $19 million to pay P&G. Lets just hope these guys weren’t distributors for Weekenders.
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