Money waiting for missing farmers

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Published: September 12, 2002

It’s not going to solve the financial crisis facing prairie

agriculture, but it will put a few bucks into a few farmers’ pockets.

A Calgary lawyer is trying to locate seven farmers who are still owed

money from the 1998 bankruptcy of Palliser Grain Co. Ltd.

John Blair of the Calgary law firm Borden, Ladner Gervais says if he

hasn’t found the missing farmers by Nov. 1, he’ll go back to court to

find another way to dispose of the money.

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Blair said he has exhausted all the normal channels to locate the

missing seven using phone books, doing internet searches and working

with other farmers.

But when all that proved fruitless, he decided to make the names public.

“What more really can I do within reasonable limits?” he said. “I’m

not going to hire a detective to find a guy to give him fifty bucks.”

Altogether there is $4,212.63 in the pot, which originates from a

$320,000 bank account that Palliser held at Canada Trust at the time of

its bankruptcy.

A court-appointed receiver initially wanted to use the money to pay off

secured creditors such as the banks, but a group of six farmers hired

Blair to argue in court that the money should instead go to producers.

The court agreed, ruling the money should be distributed among 60

farmers who were owed money by Palliser. That’s now been done, with the

exception of the seven farmers still unaccounted for.

“These are the ones that just sort of got lost in the woodwork,” Blair

said.

The farmers, and the amounts waiting for them, are: Martin Moser

$3,237.45; Chuck Richardson, $619.40; Raymond Bergeron, $212.45; Randy

Gridley $53.11; Chester Marshall, $50.59; Gary Adam, $35.40; and Bob

Dueck, $4.23.

Blair said those farmers, or anyone who knows their whereabouts, should

get in touch with him by telephone at 403-231-5796 or by e-mail at

jblair@blgcanada.com.

About the author

Adrian Ewins

Saskatoon newsroom

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