RICHMOND, Va. AP – A jury has awarded a former grocer $16 million, upholding allegations that the nation’s third-largest grocery supplier forced him out of business.
Jonathan F. Johnson, 44, filed a $25 million personal-injury lawsuit against Minneapolis-based Supervalu Inc. in March 2004, a month before he closed his four Community Pride inner-city supermarkets. The suit alleged that the company sabotaged his efforts to buy a Virginia Beach-based 18-outlet food store chain that had just emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
