Farmer sued for £2 million over ‘spoiled’ Xmas trees

A Scottish farmer is being sued for £2 million damages over claims that he spoiled a huge crop of Christmas trees.

Agriculturalcontractorjohn Paton, 44, has been accused of neglecting the trees and slashing their value because of the poor quality they were sold in.

Mr Paton is facing the bill as a counter-claim by the tree producer after he launched a bid for £127,800 compensation against it at Perth Sheriff Court.

The Perthshire farmer claims Noble Nordmann Ltd owes him that sum because it breached the terms of a contract it gave him to look after thousands of trees.

Mr Paton was a member of farming co-operative Ringlink, which was contracted by Noble Nordmann to oversee the production of trees for the UK festive market.

His company was hired in January 2015 to look after the crop for a minimum number of 1,760 hours annually at a cost of £50 an hour.

He claims Noble Nordmann did not provide the promised instructions and maps which he needed to carry out the appropriate fertilising and treatment of the trees.

Mr Paton told the court that, by the time the contract had been formally terminated, 2,556 hours of work had been carried out and £127,800 was due to be paid.

He said: “It has been an absolute nightmare. I’ve been a farmer and contractor all my life. My family were farmers before me. I have a good strong reputation.

“I did what I was asked. The counter-claim is just an attempt to get rid of me.”

However, in the counterclaim, Noble Nordmann – registered in Scotland but Danish-owned – accuses Mr Paton of decreasing the value of the crop.

“The service to be provided was work on Christmas trees using a portal tractor. He failed to provide a driver competent in the use of the portal tractor.

“He failed to carry out services with reasonable care,” it told the court. “The driver was regularly absent from the site for days at a time, believed to be due to substance abuse issues.

“He did not fulfil the contractual hours. Loss arose during the period of the contract because of his failure to timeously attend to spraying fertiliser, applying herbicide, insecticide spraying, brashing and hedge cutting.

“Such services were timecritical and essential for the production of high quality Christmas trees.

“Failure to carry out services led to discolouration and

0 The tree producer claims failure to carry out services led to discolouration and damage to the crop

damage to the trees. They were damaged by aphids. There was needle damage as a result of willow herb rust, caused by a failure to administer herbicide.

“A number of trees required to be destroyed. In addition, the quality grading of the trees was reduced, which caused and will result in a reduced

return upon sale and future sales.”

The company produced a report which claimed the future losses would amount to £1,173,975, while the reduced harvest in 2017 was responsible for a £152,110 loss.

They claimed a further loss of £669,514 as a result of each tree from a crop of nearly a

quarter of a million being sold for almost £3 less than higher quality trees.

Finally, Noble Nordmann claimed an additional £3,640 to cover the cost of extra equipment it had to buy to “mitigate losses”.

Both sides of the action will be heard at the court at a later date.