DOC Kaas must prove that it was allowed to withhold milk money from members who left the cooperative after the merger with DMK. This is apparent from an interim judgment of the court in Assen. The amount concerns the distributed share in the transaction sum of €20 million, which DOC Kaas received from the German dairy group DMK during the merger. That writes lawyer Dinant in Biesebeek in a statement.
Te Biesebeek Advocaten defends the interests of 63 dairy farmers who have filed a lawsuit against DOC Kaas to claim overdue milk money. When they left the cooperative, the statutory redundancy payment was deducted from them. In addition, milk money was deducted from the paid share of the transaction sum of €20 million. In December 2016, the cheese group also paid out €0,01 cents less per kilo of milk to departing members than to permanent members, Te Biesebeek writes.
Pay out transaction sum
The member dairy farmers of DOC Kaas voted on 21 May 2015 (at a general meeting of members) in favor of the merger with DMK. According to Te Biesebeek, it was also stated that in the event of a successful merger, the transaction sum would be paid out to the members, in proportion to the amount of milk supplied by each person in the preceding years. The lawyer reports that the share of the transaction sum was soon referred to as the "dowry" and was regarded by members as compensation for the capital "in the dead hand."
After the merger, relatively many dairy farmers left DOC Kaas, as a result of which they had to deal with the deductions from the milk money. In the interlocutory judgment, the court stated that the severance payment was lawfully applied. The dairy farmers argued that DOC Kaas will no longer be a cooperative after the merger, because it does not have a majority interest in a company. "Then the company cannot enforce a severance payment," was the argument. The court did not agree, with the motivation 'once a cooperative, always a cooperative'.
With regard to the retention of the previously paid share of the transaction sum, the departing members state that it was not known when the merger decision was made that this payment was linked to membership of the cooperative. That was only included in the internal regulations on January 1, 2016, says Te Biesebeek.
House rules
According to Te Biesebeek, the court rules that DOC Kaas cannot hide behind the internal regulations. "This has been determined by the Members' Council, which is a reflection of the members, and therefore not by all members jointly," the court ruled. DOC Kaas now has to prove that the dairy farmers were already aware at the time of the merger that the payment of the transaction sum was linked to the permanent membership of the DOC Kaas cooperative.
If the cooperative is unable to provide proof, it is likely, according to Te Biesebeek, that the judge will award this part of the claim to the dairy farmers in the final judgment. "This is about 66% of their total claims."
principle of equality
Withholding €0,01 per kilo from the milk money of departing members (December 2016) is contrary to the principle of equality, the judge said. This is because the money has been paid to the permanent members. This part of the claim is also assigned to the departing members in the final judgment, Te Biesebeek reports.
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