Report: French trade insurer and 2Agriculture settle poultry feed unpaid bills claim
Supplier 2 Agriculture Ltd's claim against Compagnie Francaise D'Assurance Pour Le Commerce Exterieur SA, or Coface, has been stayed; the sides reached an out-of-court settlement, according to a Tomlin order filed at the High Court in London on May 28, reported Law360.
Judge Neil Calver signed off the order and said the proceedings will be halted unless either side needs the court’s help in enforcing, according to the article.
The leading UK poultry feed manufacturer had reportedly been seeking to collect £2.6m (US$3.6m) in unpaid bills after one of its biggest customers, Banham Group, a poultry firm, went into administration in October 2018 with the poultry feed invoices outstanding.
A spokesperson for 2Agriculture declined to comment when asked for further clarification on the reported settlement.
Background
Coface told the High Court in London last year that 2Agriculture could not claim the millions in unpaid bills as it alleged then that the feed producer had withheld key information about financial problems at its customer’s poultry operations, according to an earlier Law360 summary of the case.
The French insurer alleged that the directors at 2Agriculture Ltd had omitted key details about its dealings with Banham Group Ltd. when taking out cover for customer debts in 2018.
Defense documents filed March 27, 2020 alleged that 2Agriculture had not informed the French company that it had approached its biggest single customer about unpaid invoices.
Banham was bought out of administration by Chesterfield Poultry of Derbyshire in late 2018.
A creditors' report by the accountants Duff & Phelps said Banham had a total debt of £40m (US$56.3m), owed to about 700 companies and organizations. A BBC story filed in November that year claimed hundreds of suppliers to Banham were owed millions with little hope of repayment.
