A BC judge has blocked a move by members of the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative to deny past members a share of $4-million.

The 178 current members of the insolvent fruit growers cooperative had planned to pass a vote that would strip 180 former members of their share of the surplus funds in the organization’s coffers.

However, BC Supreme Court Judge Miriam Gropper said it would be “burdensome, harsh and wrongful,” and went on to say it was a “visible departure from standards of fair dealing and an abuse of power.”

The details are laid out in a Feb. 12 BC Supreme Court decision, which highlights the fractures in the almost century-old organization.

The Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative was founded in 1936 and built millions of dollars’ worth of assets over the years on the backs of generations of farmers. In 2008, four packing house cooperatives amalgamated becoming the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, which went into receivership in 2024.

After the debts are settled, there’s expected to be between $12M to $15M of surplus funds left to be divvied up between the members. Former members would get to divide $4 million, which basic math indicates that they’d get about $22,000 each.

The co-op now has 178 members and 180 former members and its bylaws dictate how surplus cash is distributed to members both past and present.

The current members want to hold an annual general meeting to pass a vote that would change the rules and deny its former members any windfall.

The decision shows that both the former members and the current members blame each other for the cooperative’s failure.

The co-op’s chief financial officer Douglas Pankiw gave several reasons for the failure including membership discord over proposed property sales and governance changes.

He also said there was the weather in 2024, and declining apple volumes in previous years, especially the “staggering” 50% reduction in projected apple volumes for 2024 versus 2023.

There was also increased competition from independent packers and Washington State.

However, former members’ representative Steve Day argued the “staggering” drop in apple volumes was caused by current members withholding their crop estimates in protest of the leadership at the BC Tree Fruit Cooperative, which made it impossible to budget and plan for the 2024 year.

As both sides blame each other for the decline, they argue about what’s left in the pot.

“I cannot find that it was the current members or the former members that caused the financial collapse,” Justice Gropper said. “There was a confluence of factors, including external factors.”

The Justice said there was no explanation why the current members wanted to vote to change the rules except that it meant more money for each of them.

“The former members had reasonable expectations that each would share in the distribution of any surplus finds, in accordance with (the) rule(s),” the Justice said.

Ultimately, the Justice blocked the current members from cashing in on all the spoils of what’s left of the defunct cooperative.