Easterday: Washington Trust objects to debtor’s cash collateral motion

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., Feb. 11 – Easterday Ranches, Inc. debtor Easterday Farms’ cash collateral motion drew an objection from Washington Trust Bank, according to a Thursday filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

Easterday Farms, which filed bankruptcy Monday and had its case consolidated with Easterday Ranches’, is seeking court approval to use $7.4 million of Washington Trust’s cash collateral over a four-week period to pay for seed, fertilizer and other expenses.

Washington Trust said approving the motion would effectively force it to finance a 2021 crop that hasn’t yet been planted.

“These proposed expenses reflect an unexplained 60% increase over budgeted expenses in essentially the same timeframe from 2020, and would be incurred by an entirely new management team barely acquainted with the operations of the debtor, after the owner and prior operator is alleged to have committed gross defalcation in connection with an affiliated company to the tune of upwards of $250 million,” the bank said.

Washington Trust said that while Easterday Farms is proposing to grant the bank adequate protection, the company hasn’t provided any information to evaluate the adequacy of the substitute collateral.

Easterday Ranches is a Pasco, Wash.-based cattle operator. The company filed bankruptcy on Feb. 1 under Chapter 11 case number 21-00141.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.