Expert to assess damage to furbearer business insurance at court's order
After the court opened a case for €113 million in damages for half a dozen fur farms, which must close by 2027, the judge ordered an expert opinion to assess the real potential damage of each of the 48 farms' closures.
On 2 October, the Šiauliai chamber of the Regional Administrative Court commissioned a forensic expert, Taurus Antanas Tupinis, to carry out the study and suspended the case. The latter part of the ruling can be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania.
The expert will have to determine the future damages resulting from the business ban, calculated on the basis of the market value of each farm as of 20 September 2023, minus the state compensation, if any, and the net value of the assets that could be disposed of, as well as the compensation for the redundant employees.
All the applicants who have lodged a complaint with the court have until 15 October to pay into the court's account the €170,000 fee for the expert examination, as well as to provide the expert with all the necessary material in their possession and to create the necessary conditions for the expert examination.
„It is going to be a long and painstaking process. A forensic expert with specialist knowledge will investigate the losses suffered by 48 fur farms. From the data obtained, the expert will draw up a report to be submitted to the Šiauliai Chamber of the Regional Administrative Court, and until then the case will be at a standstill," Kaklys said in a statement.
The State is the defendant in the case and is represented by the Chancellery of the Seimas.
The complaint was lodged with the court in January this year.
BNS wrote that the National Paying Agency (NPA) received six applications for compensation for losses suffered by game farms last year and this year: last year, three owners were paid almost €11,000 for 3,66,000 animals, this year one received €1,700 for 850 animals and a second was charged €261,200 for 87,000 animals.
In March, the Constitutional Court ruled that the ban on the fur farming business enacted by the last parliament was in line with the country's basic law.
According to the Register of Farm Animals of the Agricultural Data Centre, there are currently around 19.3 thousand of these animals in Lithuania. 39 farms breed 703,000 mink and another 23 farms breed chinchillas.
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