The Otago Trustee Company Ltd, whose directors are Dunedin businessmen Alistair Broad and Greg Paterson, administer the estate of entrepreneurial Dunedin businessman Howard Paterson, who died in Fiji in July 2003, and have applied for the bankruptcy proceedings to the High Court at Dunedin.
The $560,000 debt involved pre-dates the $30 million receivership of Big Sky Dairy Farm near Patearoa, which began in April 2007, of which Mr Carr and Mr Humphries have since become bitter opponents.
On behalf of estate administrators Otago Trustees, Dunedin lawyers Anderson Lloyd have filed separate requests seeking bankruptcy notices against Mr Carr, claiming a debt of $269,000, and Mr Humphries, for a debt of $290,000.
The original debts were held by UDC Finance for farm machinery and were granted to the finance company by court order last September, then assigned to Otago Trustee by order in November.
A High Court order in May granted that Otago Trustee was entitled to enforce the order.
Otago Trustee spokesman Alistair Broad was contacted yesterday and said the debt was from a partnership with Mr Carr and Mr Humphries.
However, the debt to UDC was paid by Otago Trustees and it was subsequently seeking to recover that debt.
"We are seeking to collect the amount owed from a joint guarantee from several years ago . . . well before Big Sky [Dairy Farm] was placed in receivership," Mr Broad said.
According to public notices, Mr Carr and Mr Humphries have 10 days until July 25 to pay their respective debts.
The proceedings towards bankruptcy are the latest legal move spanning two years following the $30 million receivership of the ambitious Big Sky Dairy Farm near Patearoa.
Big Sky Dairy Farm was on June 2 placed in the hands of the Official Assignee for liquidation.
Collectively, within the wider "Big Sky Group" of companies, Mr Carr has a one-third interest and Mr Humphries a two-thirds interest in each of Consultants Management Services Ltd, Big Sky Dairy Farms Ltd, Cascade Capital Ltd, Main Farm Ltd and Tercio Dairy Ltd.
The Patearoa farm was initially proposed in early 2001 as a super farm running up to 6000 cows on 1600ha using supplementary feed, prompting widespread criticism at the time, but it had been running 3000 cows on about 1300ha in recent times.
More than one million kilograms of milk solids were expected to be produced annually.
The Big Sky dairy syndicate was formed in 2001 and included Howard Paterson, along with Mr Humphries, and Mr Carr, who had been running the Patearoa farm since 1992.
Mr Paterson's estate settled "a deed of arrangement to exit" shortly after Mr Howard's death, Mr Broad said yesterday.
According to Company Office records, the Otago Trustee Company Ltd was registered in November 2003, with its shareholding held by three Paterson family members and Peter Gowing.
