Farmer, Agricorp resolve decade-old crop insurance dispute

Thursday, November 27, 2014

by JIM ALGIE

A long-standing appeal by Sunderland-area farmer Bruce Pearse over 2005 crop insurance claims has ended before the Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal.

In a Nov. 20 decision, tribunal vice-chair John O’Kane granted a dismissal motion brought by Agricorp, the provincial crown corporation managing Ontario crop insurance programs. Neither Pearse nor his lawyer responded adequately to requests for documentation in the case, the vice-chairman’s decision says.

Pearse declined an opportunity to comment, Friday, when contacted by telephone at his home. In a statement emailed to Better Farming, Agricorp spokesperson Stephanie Charest said only that the agency accepts the tribunal’s decision.

“A decision has been made. Agricorp accepts the decision of the Tribunal,” Charest said Friday.

In earlier proceedings, Pearse had won a tribunal order for partial payment of claims after appealing an initial Agricorp decision in his case. On May 22, 2008, “after a full hearing on the merits,” a tribunal panel granted payment to Pearse of $2,848.30 relating to his claim for spring wheat damage but dismissed his soybean claim, O’Kane’s Nov. 20 decision says.

Pearse sought and won a review of the 2008 decision on condition he repay the awarded amount of $2,848.30. Since then, neither Pearse nor his lawyer pursued a new hearing date. As well, neither provided adequate explanation for delays in review proceedings or in repayment of the earlier award as ordered, the vice-chairman said.

On one occasion in 2009, a lawyer for Pearse sought to adjourn a scheduled hearing because of his client’s “urgent surgery for cancer treatment,” the decision said. In early August of 2014, after five years without other developments, Agricorp lawyers filed a motion to end further proceedings.

Pearse appeared in person at a scheduled, Sept. 4 hearing to seek further adjournment. Pearse told the tribunal in September his lawyer had only recently informed him he would be unable to appear as required because of illness.

By the time of the subsequently-scheduled, Nov. 5, hearing, Pearse had repaid the outstanding $2,848.30. But he had failed still to provide adequate documentation responding to Agricorp’s dismissal motion, the vice-chairman ruled.

Tribunal decisions under the Crop Insurance Act are final and not subject to any right of appeal, O’Kane’s Nov. 20 decision says. However, the tribunal vice-chairman cited a section of the Ontario Statutory Powers and Procedures Act that provides for reviews by the tribunal of its own decisions “within a reasonable time.”

Evidence from Pearse in person and an affidavit from his lawyer “did not sufficiently explain the delay” in their case, O’Kane said. The vice-chairman’s decision cited specifically an absence of corroborating medical evidence in materials before the tribunal about the health of Pearse and his lawyer.

The vice-chairman also ordered AgriCorp to restore to Pearse the original $2,848.30 payment.

Agricorp lawyers were given 10 days to submit written arguments supporting a claim that Pearse should compensate the agency for its legal costs with a further 10-day period for reply from Pearse, the decision says. However, O’Kane also said his “inclination in this case is that each party should bear its own costs.” BF