This is a very telling case of dangerous corporate disconnect.

In the battle for submarine sandwich supremacy between Quiznos and Subway, Quiznos had dispatched an armada of secret shoppers to its own stores. These stealth sandwich buyers were deployed to purchase beef-laden sandwiches in an effort to prove that Quiznos puts more meat in the bun than Subway does.

In the course of the maneuvers, it was determined that at least one Quiznos store had allegedly shorted a sandwich some meat. TheMorningCall.com indicates that the sandwich in question was 1 ounce short of beef, prompting the Quiznos corporate offices to immediately torpedo the franchise stor, owned by Rich Piotrowski and his wife Ellen Blickman, with a notice of permanent shutdown.

According to TheMorningCall.com, a discerning judge has determined that the Quiznos testing procedure was flawed at best. The report stated: "Calling Quiznos' actions a ''charade,'' District Judge Morris B. Hoffman said the secret tests of franchise owners were ''preposterous'' and ''laughably unreliable'' and agreed with Piotrowski and Blickman that the company had mistreated them."

Subsequent to an aborted attempt to revitalize their sandwich store operation, and a serious legal tussle with the legal staff of Quiznos, Piotrowski and Blickman have been awarded $350,000 in compensation for their business losses. Quiznos, of course, disagrees with the judge's decision.

There's no word yet from the approximately 300 other Quiznos stores, out of about 4000 outlets, which received termination torpedoes from their sub captain, under the auspices of being a little short of meat.