Lawsuit against RRCA tossed out of court

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Just seven days after their annual meeting, the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association breathed a sigh of relief as word came from the courts that a lawsuit against them was thrown out of court.
RRCA President Ken McKinnon said they are relieved the matter is over but does not want to dwell on it. “We need to look forward not back.” McKinnon said with the recent major upgrades to the Stratton Sales Barn, RRCA sees a bright future ahead now that the threat of losing their assets to a lawsuit is gone.
Former Sales Barn Manager Russell Richards sued the RRCA for wrongful dismissal, naming Ken McKinnon, Amos Brielmann, Shawn Hyatt, Jeff Pollard, Jason Teeple, Herb Govier and Aarne Hahkala as defendants. They were and still are the current RRCA board of directors. At the 2008 annual meeting of RRCA a motion was passed to keep the existing executive in place until the suit was resolved. That was again done in Jan. at the 2009 meeting.
According to a press release issued by RRCA’s lawyer, “On January 29, 2009, the Hon. Justice E.W. Stach of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed Mr. Richard’s court action against Ken McKinnon, Amos Brielmann, Shawn Hyatt, Jeff Pollard, Jason Teeple, Herb Govier and Aarne Hahkala. After hearing submissions, on Feb. 19, 2009 the Hon. Justice G.P. Smith ordered Mr. Richards to pay the Personal Defendants costs of $3,500. In his reasons, Justice Smith stated explicitly that Mr. Richards ‘should not have sued the Defendants in the first place’ and should have responded to an earlier proposal of the Personal Defendants to dismiss the action.”
At the 2008 RRCA annual meeting Richard’s son and wife told the Record that Russell was suing for the balance of a ten year contract; of which they said he had four years left.
As for the motion to keep the current board of RRCA directors, President McKinnon told the Record, on Thursday, that it will be up to the board to decide what to do at their next monthly meeting which is on April 15th.