Agricultural Law NetLetter - Sunday, June 7, 2015 - Issue 325

Highlights

A Justice of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench has dismissed a farmer's application for judicial review from an Appeals Committee established by Agriculture Financial Services Corporation to consider appeals from farmers who suffer production losses insured under the federal-provincial AgriInsurance Program. The Court concluded, among other things, that the standard of review is reasonableness and that the Court could not re-weigh the evidence, but instead look at the record to decide if Appeal Committee's conclusions were within acceptable outcomes. The Court also upheld the Committee's finding that the farmer's failure to correct errors in "statement of reported production" prepared by AFSC in relation to a claim constituted a fraudulent, false or misleading statement which disentitled the farmer to recovery. (F. Prins Potatoes Ltd. v. Agriculture Financial Services Corp., CALN/2015-014, [2015] A.J. No. 578, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench)

** NEW CASE LAW **

F. Prins Potatoes Ltd. v. Agriculture Financial Services Corp.; CALN/2015-014, Full text: [2015] A.J. No. 578; 2015 ABQB 335, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, B.E. Mahoney J., May 22, 2015.

Crop Insurance -- Judicial Review of Appeal Committee Decisions -- Standard of Review -- Fraudulent, False and Misleading Statements.

F. Prins Potatoes Ltd. ("Prins") brought an application for judicial review of a decision of Agriculture Financial Services Corporation Appeal Committee (the "Appeal Committee") following a hearing which was held on November 2, 2012. Prins entered into AgriInsurance contracts with Agriculture Financial Services Corporation ("AFSC") for the 2009 and 2010 crop years. The AgriInsurance Program is a federal-provincial government initiative that provides production insurance to Alberta agricultural producers who have suffered production losses due to perils designated in the insurance policy. The AgriInsurance Program is administered in Alberta by AFSC.

Prins made claims for losses alleged to have occurred in relation to its canola crops, spring wheat crops and its potatoe crops in 2009 and 2010.

AFSC initially delinced to pay benefits to Prins in relation to its claim because Prins' "Post Harvest Assessments" were incomplete and inconsistent with actual crop production.

Following discussions between Prins and AFSC, AFSC accepted Prins' claim for production losses with respect to its 2009 seed potatoes and its 2010 canola and seed potatoes.

On June 5, 2012...