Agricultural Law Netletter - Issue 392 - March 21, 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

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A Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan has dismissed a farmers' application for relief against forfeiture under s. 50 and 53 of the Saskatchewan Farm Security Act. The farmers were experiencing extended financial difficulty as a result of a number of events beyond their control including the inability to market their grain, and adverse weather conditions. However the Court concluded that it only had discretion under the Act to grant temporary relief arising from a farmer's temporary inability to pay. The hardship in this case was not temporary; the request to postpone removal of the equipment until the fall harvest in the hope that the 2018 crop would be sufficient for them to pay an outstanding debt of approximately $450,000.00 was speculative. The Court accepted the creditor's assertion that the farmer likely had no equity in the equipment and that the best time to market the equipment was in the spring of 2018, before spring