GRAFTON, N.D. -- Farmer Tom Grabanski has at least temporarily stopped a courthouse sale of his Grafton home, as well as several other area properties, by filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The auction had been scheduled for July 30.
After losing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Grabanski and his wife, Mari, filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy July 29 in Texas, where they now live.
In the bankruptcy petition, the Grabanskis indicate $10 million to $50 million in assets and $1 million to $10 million in debts, along with 50 to 99 creditors. They are represented by Vickie L. Driver of the Coffin and Driver firm in Dallas.
Tom Grabanski didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Agweek.
The Grabanskis, originally of Grafton, farmed with an assortment of partners in Texas and then Colorado, starting in 2007. Some of their Colorado farms suffered from drought and the partners ran into a dispute with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency over whether they should receive crop insurance for corn they did not irrigate.
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Their partnerships eventually won those insurance claims. But disputes with former partners, lenders and customers of a Grafton grain elevator the Grabanskis owned landed them in court, with allegations of fraud.
Tom and Mari Grabanski filed a personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in July 2010. That case was dismissed April 12, 2013, by Judge Thad J. Collins in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fargo.
With the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection gone, Horse Creek Farms, a creditor group from Colorado, pursued a sheriff's sale of five Grabanski properties in Grafton, to satisfy a $1 million 2010 judgment in Walsh County District Court.
Judge Collins' order prohibited the Grabanskis from filing another Chapter 11 petition for 180 days but didn't specifically prohibit Chapter 7.
Walsh County Deputy Sheriff Jim Kosmatka told Agweek an hour before the asset sale was to begin July 30 that the sale had been postponed until Aug. 2 at 10 a.m.
"There are some questions that need to be addressed" before the sale can go forward, Kosmatka says.
