Farmer awarded more than €88k over apples sprayed with herbicide
THE owner of an award-winning fruit and vegetable farm has won more than €88,000 in compensation after a neighbour’s weedkiller damaged the apples in his orchard.
High Court Judge Anthony Barr said the damaged apples could not be sold in the shops at full value, but had to be used in baking or turned into cider.
He ordered that John Donnelly & Sons Ltd, which runs Iona Fruit Farm at Oldtown, Co. Dublin, be compensated for the loss of profits of €88,243.54.
The farm, which has been in the Donnelly family for three generations, won a Euro-Toques food award in 2019 for its organic fruit, herbs and vegetables.
Some 70 of its 120 acres were given over to apple-growing at the time of the incident.
Judge Barr noted that in September 2011, defendant Michael Hoey and Country Crest Farming Ltd leased a field across the road from the Donnelly farm.
Mr Hoey, 60, has been farming all his life. He and his brother have 400 employees and a 3,500acre farm, the judge said.
The defendant grew potatoes in the field, and in that month an employee sprayed the crop with the herbicide Spotlight Plus.
The judge said it was the Donnellys’ case that, due to windy weather, spray from the herbicide blew across the road and damaged a large proportion of the apples in their orchard.
The controller of the farm company, Donnacha Donnelly, 55, told the court he saw spraying under way on the defendant’s field on September 10, 2011, when he was in the kitchen in his mother’s house, across the road.
‘He stated that he was surprised that the defendant would elect to spray on that day, due to high winds,’ the judge said.
Mr Donnelly said that a week after the spraying, he noticed spotting and speckling on many of the apples in the orchard.
The defendant said the damage was not caused by his herbicide as it was spread evenly through the entire orchard, whereas spray drift typically leaves an uneven pattern of damage.
He claimed the damage was caused by Mr Donnelly’s overapplication of calcium chloride to the apples in July and August 2011. This is generally applied to enhance the firmness of apples.
Yesterday, the judge outlined evidence from witnesses on both sides. For the Donnellys, Teagasc’s 2011 fruit adviser, Dermot Callaghan, said the damage was due to herbicide drift.
‘Mr Callaghan stated that the retail food market is very demanding in relation to the appearance of fruit. If there is any blemish on the fruit, it will be downgraded for use in processing. It will not be sold to the general public,’ the judge noted.
Judge Barr said he had concluded that the defendant was liable for the damage to the Donnellys’ apples, as the spraying had been negligently carried out in windy conditions.
Judge Barr said he accepted the Donnellys’ evidence about the amount of money they had lost due to blemished apples.
Mr Donnelly had said that usually he would be paid €9 per box, but instead the apples were sold at a much-reduced price of €52 for a bin, for use in bakery products and cider.
The judge said he also proposed to order that the defendant must pay the legal costs of the case.
‘Food market is very demanding’