WESTERN PRODUCER — The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal from a Saskatchewan farmer in a years-long dispute with Input Capital Corp.
Terry Gustafson had appealed a Queen’s Bench court decision ordering him to pay nearly $9 million to the company after he failed to deliver canola as promised, claiming that the judge erred.
In that case, the judge found Gustafson owed $7,241,302.58, plus interest at five percent per year for a total of $8,809,872.21. Gustafson argued that he did not owe the interest. He also argued that a second canola streaming contract he signed was not ancillary to the first and as such did not amend his mortgage security.
However, the appeal court said there was no error in the damages judgment.
Lawsuits between Gustafson and ICC date back to 2014 when the parties signed the first streaming contract. A second followed in 2015, in which Gustafson agreed to deliver canola every year through 2020. ICC advanced him millions of dollars but Gustafson failed to deliver any canola.
A trial in 2018 deemed Input’s contracts to be unconscionable, but still ordered Gustafson to pay nearly $4.4 million.
ICC appealed the judgment and the court agreed, ordering the matter back to Queen’s Bench to determine damages and security enforcement.
