ATLANTA - A federal appeals court yesterday threw out a $10 million libel judgment against ABC, saying lawyers failed to prove the show "20/20'' skewed a story to make a bank executive look like a crook.

Alan Levan, chairman and chief executive of BankAtlantic, sued the network over a 1991 broadcast he said used false statements and misleading editing to attack his character. A jury ruled in his favor in 1996.

But a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled that decision, saying ABC and producer William Willson had no reason to believe the overall gist of the story was false, which Levan's lawyers needed to prove to show the network acted with actual malice.

"We're delighted with the court's ruling,'' said Eileen Murphy, spokeswoman for ABC News. She said the network would not comment further until executives had time to study the decision.

The report focused on real estate partners who accused Levan of bilking them in deals known as ''roll-ups,'' in which real estate was swapped for BankAtlantic bonds at the height of the savings and loan crisis.

"In view of the vast number of objective sources who condemned the roll-ups as unfair to the limited partners, we conclude ... that ABC did not entertain serious doubts that the gist of its broadcast was true,'' the judges wrote.

Levan's attorney, Alan Fein, disagreed with the court's interpretation of the point of the story. He said he will likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fein contends the report accused Levan of knowingly misleading his partners into accepting a bad deal. The judges decided that, while the story implies Levan must have known the deal was unfair, "ABC does not expressly say so.''

"I'm clearly disappointed, although the court has decided the issue on a very narrow ground that will be worthy of Supreme Court review,'' Fein said.

Both sides claimed high stakes in the case. Fein told jurors the report caused BankAtlantic customers to close their accounts because they believed Levan was a crook.

ABC said the $10 million judgment threatened to make news organizations think twice before pursuing important, hard-hitting stories.

Levan's partners eventually won an $8 million settlement in class-action suits over the roll-ups, but congressional and regulatory investigations produced no charges.

ABC ended up broadcasting a correction stating that the editing of the story may have misled some viewers about Levan's role in the real-estate deal. The report also said Levan refused to speak with ABC, whereas he declined to be interviewed on camera but had contacted the show several times.