Usda

In 2001, two entrepreneurs founded Perfectly Fresh Marketing, Inc., a wholesale produce company, and soon thereafter founded three subsidiary companies to handle different aspects of the business. Although things started out well, before long the firms found themselves in financial straits, and declared bankruptcy before the legal proceedings that are the subject of this appeal began.

Those proceedings involve a complex, rarely litigated federal statute, the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (“PACA” or “the Act”), 7 U.S.C. § 499a et seq., designed in part to assure that farmers are paid for their produce. In 2009, the Judicial Officer (“JO”) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture determined that Perfectly Fresh Farms, Inc., Perfectly Fresh Consolidation, Inc., and Perfectly Fresh Specialties, Inc. had violated the PACA by failing to make prompt payment for produce purchases. See id. § 499b(4); see generally In re Perfectly Fresh Farms, Inc., 68 Agrie. Dec. 507 (U.S.D.A.2009) (“JO Order”). All three of these entities— like their parent company Perfectly Fresh Marketing, Inc. — had failed by the time the Department of Agriculture commenced administrative proceedings…