Lawsuit alleges Hastings Creamery owes dairy farm $800K
HASTINGS, Minn. — A dairy farm is suing the historic Hastings Creamery for allegedly failing to pay for over $800,000 worth of milk.
In January of 2023, the owners of Hastings Creamery agreed to pay Valley Acres Dairy for its total output of milk, according to a lawsuit filed in Dakota County. The two parties agreed to a price in March, but the creamery failed to pay for any milk delivered between April 1 and Aug. 15.
In all, Valley Acres Dairy says they're owed $814,387.03.
The lawsuit says that in August, Hastings Creamery told the owners of Valley Acres that they could not pay because Glenwood State Bank took money out of their payroll and moved it to an account they could not access.
Glenwood State Bank is also named in the lawsuit because they allegedly "knew or had reason to know" that Hastings Creamery was not paying their sellers for milk and allegedly unlawfully possessed trust assets.
Hastings Creamery, which supplied dairy products for 110 years, closed in August after violating a wastewater permit. According to a notice of violation from the Met Council, the creamery had received six notices of waste violations in seven months.
The lawsuit filed by Valley Acres alleges the creamery "deliberately, recklessly, and or negligently leaked thousands of gallons of milk and cream into the city sewer system" between May and June of 2023.
RELATED: Why did the Hastings Creamery close?
The Met Council cut off the creamery's access to the Hastings wastewater treatment plant, forcing the owners to find a way to dispose of the waste their milk was producing. But they struggled to find a solution, and the creamery closed.
In September, a fire tore through the Hastings Creamery building.
Note: The video above was originally published on Sept. 14, 2023