Agricultural Law NetLetter - Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - Issue 309

HIGHLIGHTS

A Justice of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench has held that a farmer who received a loan on the security of a flock of sheep was in partnership with a divorcee who he was living with, and who later claimed that the sheep were hers, not the farmer's. The Court concluded that an objective review of the facts must be conducted to determine whether the parties had the intention of carrying on business in common as partners, and that the divorcee's denial of common intent was not determinative. The Court concluded that the loan application (which was witnessed by the divorcee) was made by the partnership even though it was only signed by the farmer, and that the loan documents and the security agreement signed by the farmer as the divorcee's agent. [Editor's Note: Undocumented partnerships are common in the rural landscape. Ownership issues with respect to livestock on family farms are complicated. Lenders can avoid risks like this by, among other things,