Jury Awards $300,000 Against Candid Camera in Airport-Prank Injury Case
Won by Wagner Jones Kopfman & Artenian.
A Los Angeles jury found Candid Camera and host Peter Funt liable for negligence, false imprisonment, and intentional misrepresentation after a prank at a small Arizona airport left Philip Zelnick with leg injuries, awarding $300,000 in punitive damages.
What happened
On June 15, 2001, Philip Zelnick arrived at Laughlin-Bullhead International Airport in Bullhead City, Arizona, for what he believed was a routine security screening. A man in a security uniform directed him to climb onto the conveyor belt of what appeared to be an X-ray machine. The 'guard' was Peter Funt, host of the CBS-then-PAX television program Candid Camera, and the machine was a prop.
As the belt moved, Zelnick's upper thigh became caught in the rollers. The pinching left a red, fist-sized bruise on his leg. A pen in his pocket twisted under the pressure and punctured the same area. He was 35 years old at the time and had no warning that he was being filmed or that the checkpoint was staged.
Attorney Andrew Jones filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Peter Funt, Funt's production company Candid Camera Inc., the PAX television network, and the Mohave County Airport Authority. The complaint asserted battery, negligence, false imprisonment, intentional misrepresentation, and infliction of emotional distress. The core argument was straightforward: the defendants manufactured a hazardous situation, concealed it from Zelnick, and profited from his participation without consent.
A twelve-person Los Angeles jury, five men and seven women, sided with Zelnick on three of the five claims. The panel found Funt and Candid Camera liable for negligence, false imprisonment, and intentional misrepresentation. It rejected the battery and intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress counts. The jury assigned $150,000 in punitive damages to Funt personally and $150,000 to the show, for a total verdict of $300,000.
Funt announced plans to appeal and predicted the award would be 'dramatically reduced.' The parties ultimately resolved the matter through a confidential settlement described as considerably lower than the jury's figure. Separately, the Mohave County Airport Authority settled for $95,000 and PAX TV paid an additional $7,500. The case drew national attention as one of the first successful lawsuits brought by an unwitting participant against a reality television production.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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