Saskatchewan farmers suing the provincial government over changes to the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan in 1992 won an important skirmish last week.
The farmers successfully fought off an attempt by the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. to divide their lawsuit into two separate trials, one to determine liability and one to assess damages.
The court also ruled that just two farmers would be required to appear in court and testify on the issue of damages, rather than all 386 farmers named in the class action suit.
Wayne Bacon, a Kinistino, Sask., farmer and spokesperson for the group, said the March 3 ruling by Justice R. D. Laing of Court of Queen’s Bench was a victory for common sense.
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“It would have been simply impossible for all 386 farmers to appear and give evidence during a 10-day trial,” he said in a press release.
The farmers say their GRIP contracts were broken when the government introduced changes to the program in the spring of 1992. They are asking for damages equal to the payments they would have received if the old rules from 1991 had been left in place.
In his ruling, Laing said he was dismissing the application in part because both parties had already agreed at pre-trial conferences to allow two farmers to represent all the others at trial.
The two farmers, Bacon and Gary Svenkeson, will be permitted to give evidence as to the financial damages they personally suffered. That evidence will not apply to the other 384 farmers. However, any formula used by the court to assess their losses may be applied to all other plaintiffs.
Know their losses
Laing also said it’s important that the farmers know after the trial whether the court believes they suffered a financial loss, as they decide whether an appeal is worthwhile in the event of an unfavorable decision.
The judge also allowed the crop insurance corporation to amend its court documents so it could attempt to sue any farmers who may have received a financial gain as a result of the change in GRIP.
No date has been set for the trial to begin.
