Tyson Plans to Donate Money From Lien
|  Video
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| Retha Colclasure |
| 6/30/2009 |
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| We told you last week about a South Dakota rancher who is fighting for his home in Herreid. Tyson Foods placed a lien on the home after Herman Schumacher did not pay court costs that a judge ordered. Schumacher had said that Tyson Foods, and other meat packers, violated the Packers and Stockyards Act, that is supposed to protect ranchers from deceptive practices by the meat packing industry. Despite winning a jury trial, Schumacher lost on appeal. That opened the door for Tyson to recover the cost of defending the company. A Tyson spokesman says even though they have no interest in the home itself, they are just trying to recover money they are owed. And he says they don`t even want the money, about $15,000 that they were awarded by the 8th circuit court of appeals about six months ago. Instead, they plan to donate it to a food bank. The legal tango between Tyson Foods and Herman Schumacher dates back to 2001. But it came to a head last week, when Tyson placed a lien against Schumacher`s home, in an attempt to recover court costs the court said the company was owed. "Their attorneys were aware of this and no payment was made, so we went ahead and sent a letter to Mr. Schumacher`s attorney back in January of this year reminding them of the amount of money due, and yet after more than six months, no payment was made," says Gary Mickelson, of Tyson. He says it`s not uncommon for Tyson to pursue court costs after winning a case. "It would vary depending upon the circumstances," Mickelson says. He says Tyson has no interest in Schumacher`s home, and plans to use the money to help out food banks in South Dakota. "We believe this debt should be paid," says Mickelson. "In a good faith effort to resolve the controversy over this overdue payment, we proposed donating this money to state food banks." But a spokesman for the cattle industry advocate group R-Calf , supporting Schumacher, says it`s more of an effort to clear a tarnished image. "The issue here is Tyson, which is a multi-national company, the largest meat packers in the United States, has the ability to contribute far more to food banks," says Bill Bullard. "What they are really doing is trying to embarrass a producer who had the courage to stand up to protect their market place from the anti-competitive actions of Tyson." He says Tyson only won the court fight because of a technicality, one that lets meat packers control the price in the marketplace, as long as they don`t do it intentionally. "Right now producers simply have no recourse," says Bullard. But Mickelson says they didn`t know the numbers they were using were incorrect, and says their company didn`t do anything wrong. Mickelson says R-CALF is trying to paint a misleading picture of the company. He says Tyson values and depends on the thousands of independent cattle producers across the country that it works with. |
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