MBA counsel assists in resolution of "Oprah headmistress" lawsuit against bloggers

It was last October that Nomvuyo Mzamane, former headmistress of Oprah Winfrey's South African Leadership Academy for Girls, filed a defamation suit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court against TV talk show star and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, along with a separate suit against the Huffington Post blogsite and publicity expert and blogger Ron Coleman, represented Stewart in the litigation. Both suits were based on claims that Winfrey "launched what amounted to a defamatory campaign" that implied or stated that "untrustworthy, failed the students of the academy, did not care about the students at the academy, knew of alleged physical and sexual abuse at the academy and participated in a cover-up of the alleged abuse," and that these charges were, in turn, wrongfully published by the Huffington Post and Joan Stewart.

The Huffington Post and Ariana Huffington, who was named personally, were represented by New York attorney Mary Mulligan.

Under a settlement agreement signed in December, the defendants agreed to post apologies, which Joan Stewart had already done. Last month the court officially removed the case from the litigation docket and the matter is now completely resolved. Neither Joan Stewart nor the Huffington Post were required to make any payment of money or provide other consideration, besides the corrective blog posts, in exchange for the dismissal of the claims by Mzamane.

photo by Alan Light