Judge Orders Farmer Not to Sell Christmas Trees
Saying she regretted having to play Scrooge, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge stepped into the San Fernando Valley Christmas tree war Monday, ordering farmer Joe Cicero not to sell his trees on land he leases from Pierce College in Woodland Hills.
The ruling by Judge Dzintra A. Janavs, granting the Los Angeles Community College District a temporary restraining order against Cicero, means that he is stuck with 8,000 Christmas trees costing an estimated $120,000.
The victor was Miller & Sons, one of the largest Christmas tree vendors in California, with 40 lots--including one across the street from Cicero’s vegetable stand. Cicero, whose family has raised crops on leased public land in the Valley since 1947, pays the college district about $15,000 a year to farm 25 acres.
The district forbade Cicero from selling trees this year because of a lawsuit by Miller alleging that the district fostered unfair competition by failing to allow others to bid on the right to sell trees from the campus location.
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