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.
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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.
