Burley Co-op Ordered to Return Growers' Money

Source from:  tobaccofarmquarterly.com March 19, 2007 03/23/2007

A Fayette Circuit Court has ordered the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association to return as much as $130 million to members of the five-state group that once helped administer the now-defunct federal price support system, reports The Courier-Journal of Lexington, Kentucky. A group of tobacco farmers initially filed suit in December 2003 in Lexington claiming that 63 million pounds of tobacco given by Congress to the association in the 2004 buyout legislation was the property of the members. The co-op argued that the grant was made to the association, and its directors could proceed as they saw fit. Enditem