The statement of claim filed by Sweda alleges that general manager Harry Pelissero acted beyond the egg board's jurisdiction because it's the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that is responsible for policing the grading of eggs. Lawyer Geoffrey Spurr, acting for the egg board, says he doesn't know that Sweda Farms is a federally-licenced egg-grading business.
Best Choice Eggs is. Both it and Sweda Farms are owned by Svante Lind.
The lawsuit alleges that Pelissero acted to collect marketing board levies from Sweda and other producers without authority from the board of directors. Spurr replies that Pelissero and then-inspector Mark Beaven were acting within board authority and the board of directors was kept informed "such as was required."
The egg board says it began investigating Best Choice's grading statements and payments to farmers because farmers indicated they had concerns, not that it was a conspiracy among L.H. Gray and Son Ltd., Burnbrae Farms Ltd. and the egg board to hassle Best Choice's suppliers. The egg board says Beaven checked the records of all 430 egg board members and invoiced 44 of them for unpaid levies, among them 15 Best Choice suppliers.
The board says in its defence that 30 of those invoices were cancelled after farmers provided valid explanations, two were paid in full, one was paid after the amount owing was reduced, later four more were cancelled and eight were left outstanding. One of them was an invoice for $44,470.49 against Sweda Farms.
The egg board denies it threatened to cancel quotas if the invoices were not paid.
The egg board says it was Lind's own fault that he could not get enough eggs because he didn't renew contracts with farmers or pursue contracts with other farmers. And it says it acted properly in supplying eggs to Lind, either with Ontario-produced eggs or handling paperwork for imports when Lind couldn't get enough to satisfy his customers.
The board also notes that Lind sold Sweda Farms quota that could have supplied him with 39,000 dozen per week. It says that when he sold the quota, he did not require the buyer to sell eggs to nobody but Best Choice.
The egg board says Pelissero responded to all of Lind's requests for eggs other than those that he deemed "unreasonable or unrealistic requirements."
The lawsuit seeks a total of $33 million from Pelissero and $33 million from the egg board.
None of the allegations or defences have been proven in court.
