WINNIPEG – Allan Caners’s battle with DowElanco started almost 10 years ago when he said he applied a herbicide to a half-section of land in the fall and huge, thick patches of weeds came up in the spring.
He said he followed directions to the letter and was determined to get the company to take responsibility for what he considered to be the chemical’s failure.
Last month, Caners came one step closer to his goal. The Manitoba Court of Appeal upheld a provincial court decision that Eli Lilly Canada Inc., owners of DowElanco, must pay Caners for his poor canola crop of 1987.
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The panel of three judges also found Eli Lilly to be responsible for severe damage to wheat planted in the same field in 1988.
“What kept me going was I knew I was in the right and truth was going to come,” said Caners, who farms 4,500 acres near Fisher Branch, Man.
And Caners was willing to bet $50,000 on winning, which is about how much his legal fees cost. The court calculated damages at $46,743.35, plus court costs and interest.
Caners applied Treflan QR5 to his central Manitoba farmland before seeding canola in 1986. He said he was later told by a company representative that the herbicide didn’t work well north of the Trans-Canada highway.
He planted wheat the following year and had to reseed with barley because emergence was poor, and barley is thought to better withstand the effects of the chemical.
Eli Lilly has until late May to decide whether it will ask the Supreme Court to look at another appeal. Caners said another appeal could add more years to his struggle.
Bob Peters, lawyer for Eli Lilly, was not available for comment on the case or potential appeal.
