>USE DBF AGAIN does not seem to work either. What I cannot figure out is that when my cursor is not indexed, why is it that CDX(1, 'cCursor') returns the .CDX of the parent table? It does not happen with any other file in the database.

As Jim says, NOFILTER should solve the problem, it has for me...I use it almost all the time now to prevent problems (I've had a couple bizarre things occur in grids with filtered table cursors, as well as errors with USE DBF AGAIN). If NOFILTER doesn't work, it's very strange indeed...