From the Havre Daily News: A phone book company has settled a lawsuit over its placement of a
Montana restaurant in the "Animal Carcass Removal" section of its yellow
pages, a listing the restaurant owner says cost him customers and made
him the butt of a Jay Leno joke.
The terms of the Nov. 16 deal
between Dex Media Inc. and Big Sky Beverage Inc., the parent company of
Bar 3 Bar-B-Q, were not disclosed. A tentative agreement proposed in
September said a deal would include a payment to the restaurant owner.
Restaurant
owner Hunter Lacey sued Dex after the listing appeared in the 2009
phone book and was reprinted in other print and online directories in
2010 and last year. It gained national notoriety after Leno featured it
as a joke on the Tonight Show in January 2011.
Lacey's lawsuit
claims a Dex salesman deliberately published the free listing under the
"Animal Carcass Removal" section after he refused to buy an
advertisement in the phone book. The salesman no longer works for the
company.
Lacey claimed the negative publicity caused business to
drop off at his Bozeman and Belgrade restaurants and his brand's
reputation to suffer. His lawsuit alleged negligence, defamation and
slander, among other charges.
Dex has said it was an erroneous listing the company removed from its online directory when it was discovered
http://www.havredailynews.com/cms/news/story-659204.html
I doubt the guy lost too much business because, in reality, how many people actually look in the phone book anymore and I suspect his business dropped off due to the economy more than anything.
But yeah, I would be pissed if I saw that and I have a pretty good sense of humor. As Stewie Griffith says:
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