Burnbrae Farms has won in appeal court where Sweda Farms
hoped to over-turn a decision to remove it from a lawsuit against L.H. Gray and
Son Ltd., the Ontario egg marketing board and Burnbrae.
Sweda’s lawyer, Donald Good, argued that the three were
involved in a conspiracy to drive Sweda out of the egg-grading business. It
has, indeed, sold out.
Good argued that the three colluded to fix prices, to make
deals about who would serve which major retailers, cheated on egg grading and
shipped Sweda horrible-quality eggs to keep Sweda from seeking supplementary
import permits.
The three judges wrote that Good was too late in asking
Burnbrae to furnish additional documents related to the lawsuit. They noted
that 17 months passed. and they said Good could have sought a court order to
have Burnbrae furnish the documents.
They also refused to hear additional information from Norman
Bourdeau, a whistleblower who took electronic data from Gray to show it was
cheating and conspiring with Burnbrae and the egg board.
They also refused to hear from Svante Lind, owner of Best
Choice. They said they could not add anything worthwhile to the appeal.
They also dismissed an appeal against the $85,00 legal
bills for Burnbrae that Lind must pay.
The three judges on the case were “John Laskin, R.A, Blair and S. E. Pepall.
