Oprah Prevails Over Suit Saying ‘Greenleaf’ Ripped Off Memoir

A teacher failed to show the Oprah Winfrey Network show “Greenleaf” infringed her memoir, or even that the show’s creator or Winfrey had ever read it, a North Carolina federal court ruled.

The show created by Craig Wright and aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and a book by Freda J. Day “have profound differences,” the U.S. Court for the Western District of North Carolina said.

Day also failed to show Winfrey or anyone at her company had ever seen her work. Day said she sent it via certified mail in 2009.

The summary judgment ends the second unsuccessful lawsuit alleging infringement in “Greenleaf.” An April 2018 action for copyright infringement and breach of contract ended with the plaintiff dropping the suit.

Secrets and Scandals

Among other factors dooming the lawsuit, Oprah’s network produced evidence of a long-standing policy to return outside submissions to senders, unopened, the court said. Copyright liability requires the infringer to plausibly have accessed to the work.

Day said in a 2019 lawsuit that “Greenleaf” infringed her book “From the Green Leaf to Greener Pastures.” She said the life experiences of her main character, Freda, mirrored experiences of the sisters in “Greenleaf,” a show about secrets and scandals within a wealthy family heading a megachurch in Memphis.

In January 2020 Day convinced a judge to let the case go forward, surviving an early motion to dismiss to get the case to discovery.

But at summary judgment the court said the works widely diverge in plot, theme, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, and sequence of events.

Day’s book, as a memoir, “does not really have a plot” and depicts many events with no parallels in the show, the court said. Plot similarities Day listed, such as scandalous relationships, abortion, and poverty, are unprotectable themes, not a plot, the ruling said.

Day also tried to claim infringement of basic traits that are both common and not protectable, the court said, adding that even if they were protectable, plaintiffs can’t pick and choose traits of different people instead of comparing parallel characters.

The mood and setting of Greenleaf also varied from the book. While Day’s work has a “bleak” mood featuring abject poverty, abusive relationships, lost jobs, and evictions, the show’s mood is one “of intrigue and mystery” amid power struggles among the wealthy Greenleaf family.

Day had said that Greenleaf’s Charity was an aspiring journalist in her 20s dealing with marital problems, like Freda in her book. She said that despite the wealth contrast, both works feature a large African-American family in the South and a defining backdrop of church and faith, and both begin with a beloved family member drowning in a pond.

But the court said that Day’s book’s theme of faith and perseverance differs from Greenleaf’s overall theme of “crime does not pay” and an exploration of African-American religious and social experience.

Day’s bid to establish access also failed, the court said. In 2009 OWN wasn’t located at the address to which Day said she sent the book that year, the court said.

Day also failed to serve named defendant Wright, who created “Greenleaf” without the aid of Winfrey. Wright submitted an affidavit saying he’d never heard of Day’s book.

District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. wrote the opinion.

Winfrey and OWN were represented by Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP and Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP. Day represented herself.

The case is Day v. Winfrey et al., W.D.N.C., No. 19-277, 5/12/21.