Oprah's Back In Beef Arena
Texas cattlemen won't let sleeping dogies lie.
They're once again suing Oprah Winfrey - this time in state court - for $1 million. Winfrey won an $11 million libel lawsuit in February in federal court.
The latest lawsuit was filed Thursday, the second anniversary of the show that cattlemen claim cost them millions of dollars.
On that episode, vegetarian activist Howard Lyman said that including processed cattle in cattle feed - a practice banned last summer - could spread mad cow disease to people in the United States. The brain-destroying disease has never been found in cattle in the U.S., but it is suspected of killing 23 people in Britain.
Winfrey at one point said the information "just stopped me cold from eating another burger!"
When cattle prices fell to 10-year lows in the days after the show aired, the plaintiffs termed it the "Oprah crash." They sued under the state's "veggie libel" law, which protects agricultural products from false and disparaging remarks.
The case was expected to be the nation's biggest test of such laws, which exist in 12 other states.
However, U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ruled that the case could not proceed under that law but would instead be tried as a simple business disparagement case. That meant the cattlemen had to prove that Winfrey deliberately sought to harm the beef industry.
The federal court jury said they failed to prove Winfrey knowingly gave misleading information. The verdict is being appealed.
Like the earlier suit, the new case says Lyman, Winfrey, and her production company knowingly disseminated false and disparaging remarks about beef and violated the "veggie libel" law.
The plaintiffs in the first case were three cattle-feeding operations and four ranches. This lawsuit involves 130 cattle owners, many of whom were customers at the Cactus Feeding Club Inc. when the show aired.
Cactus Feeding is owned by Paul Engler, a plaintiff in the first suit.
The latest filing surprised Winfrey's attorney, Charles Babcock.
"I am stunned that they're continuing to pursue this after they've lost," he said.
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