PSC asks to pay Falkirk credit claims
By April Baumgarten
BHG News
Companies and individuals that had credit with Falkirk Farmers Elevator may get some relief.
The Public Service Commission voted last week during a special meeting in Bismarck to file a report and recommendation to pay 80 percent of any valid credit sale claimed through its office. The affidavit comes more than a year after the PSC took over as the company’s trustee.
"The commission took a new and unique approach to this case," Commissioner Randy Christmann said. "We are asking the court to allow us to separate the credit sale contract claims from the lone claim to trust assets."
Members of the Washburn and Hazen branch voted in June 2012 to dissolve the company’s assets 88-1, essentially ending 100 years of grain business in the two cities. Five months later the PSC asked a district judge to rule the company was unable to pay its bills. The ruling would give the commission power to pay out assets to creditors.
Enerbase Agronomy of Washburn purchased Falkirk’s agronomy business while SRS Commodities bought the elevator and bins in Falkirk. A private individual purchased the elevator in Hazen.
There are almost $2 million in claims filed with the commission. St. Hilaire Seed Company Inc. of Minnesota, which has $1.7 million of the claims, has gone to litigation in federal court.
