Farmer, Company Battle Over Site of Christmas Tree Sales : Courts: Joe Cicero wants to do business from his Pierce College vegetable stand, across from a Miller & Sons lot.

The approach of Christmas brings no Yuletide cheer to the corner of Victory Boulevard and De Soto Avenue in Woodland Hills, scene of a Christmas tree war between one of the last San Fernando Valley farming families and a tree marketing firm.

At issue is whether Joe Cicero can sell Christmas trees from his vegetable stand on the grounds of Pierce College, even if that annoys Miller & Sons, which operates more than 40 Christmas tree lots statewide, including one across the street from Cicero’s stand.

Cicero said Friday that he will be in Superior Court Monday, fighting a request by the Los Angeles Community College District for an order forbidding him to sell at the college site the $150,000 worth of trees he has already ordered.

If he can’t sell trees, the 15-acre farm he leases on the college campus will go broke, said Cicero, whose family has farmed in the San Fernando Valley since 1947.

The district wants to stop him only to get rid of a lawsuit against it by the Miller company, which contends that he competes unfairly for tree buyers, Cicero said.

“Is selling Christmas trees a major crime?” Cicero asked from his stand, decorated with tinsel, wooden snowmen, peppermint sticks and sleighs.

His $22,000 Christmas tree profit was all that kept the farm afloat last year, he said.

In Miller’s lawsuit against Cicero and the community college district, the firm contended that Cicero engaged in unfair business practices by using public land leased from the college to sell products grown elsewhere, in violation of Cicero’s contract.

Jim Spark, a vice president of the Christmas tree company, said Cicero’s contract with the school allows him to sell only products he grows on the property. Otherwise, the site should be made available for competitive bidding by other companies, the suit contended.

Spark also argued that Cicero probably benefits unfairly from a perception by Christmas tree shoppers that buying a tree there will benefit Pierce College.

In an agreement scheduled to be presented for ratification to a Superior Court judge on Dec. 6, the college district agreed to forbid the sale of Christmas trees on the site unless the property was offered to other tree dealers.

But Cicero maintains that his contract with Pierce entitles him to sell the trees, saying he has sold many products grown off-campus in the past.

Although the college notified him during the summer that he could not run a tree lot, he ordered trees because his attorney advised him that he had the right to sell them, he said.

Cicero maintains that the district simply gave in to Miller’s demand because it did not want to be bothered fighting the lawsuit.

“They just want out and this is the easiest way for them,” Cicero said.

College district attorneys could not be reached for comment. Spark, however, denies that the district’s decision to prohibit Cicero from selling trees stemmed from the Miller lawsuit.

College district officials “recognize that . . . they have an asset that’s being used for free and they want to bid out and collect rent for it,” he said.

But Richard Melikian, Pierce College farm manager, said Pierce and its agricultural department receive many benefits from Cicero.