A family dispute between the owner of Rossview Farm in West Concord and his parents has made its way to the state’s highest court on appeal.
However, that New Hampshire Supreme Court appeal is on hold as the parties have agreed to try to resolve their differences through mediation.
This spring, Judge Richard McNamara of Merrimack County Superior Court ruled the farm’s owner, Don Ross, could continue leasing the land off District 5 Road from his parents, Wayne and Ruth Ross, despite the couple’s insistence that he stop.
The 600-acre farm, known for its Christmas trees, temporarily shut down in 2014, the year the elder Rosses filed the civil lawsuit against their only son. The couple had previously moved to evict Don Ross in 2013, claiming he never paid the $21,000 required as part of a lease.
The lawsuit went to trial in February, with McNamara ruling in Don Ross’s favor.
The terms of the lease are still a main point of contention. The agreement was initially just a verbal one between parents and son. The written pact eventually created in 2006 is brief and ambiguous. Ruth and Wayne Ross argued it was only for one year; Don Ross claimed it was meant to last until his parents died.
McNamara ruled in April that both sides had clearly intended to extend the lease until the elder Rosses’ deaths, at which point the land would be transferred to Don Ross.
In their supreme court appeal, Ruth and Wayne Ross continue to challenge the terms of the lease, and whether the judge’s enforcement of it violates state law. The elder Rosses argue the written pact isn’t enforceable.
The parents claimed as part of the lawsuit that Don Ross violated the agreement by engaging in repeated physical abuse. McNamara described one incident, in 2010, as Don “hugging Wayne during a period of Wayne’s anger,” and said in another that Don “supposedly struck strawberries out of Wayne’s hand.”
McNamara said the incidents did not constitute grounds for termination of the lease.
But the elder Rosses contest the lower court’s ruling, and before filing their appeal had asked McNamara to reconsider his decision. The Rosses filed their appeal in mid-July after McNamara denied their motion for reconsideration.
Don Ross’s attorney, Peter Callaghan, said Thursday that “Rossview Farm LLC has been open for business, and is currently open for business and expects to continue to operate.
“The parties are hopeful they can resolve their issues.”
Attorney John Bisson, who is representing Wayne and Ruth Ross, did not return a call seeking comment.
A message left at Rossview Farm was also not returned.
Rossview Farm, listed on the state register of historic places, incorporates three early West Concord farms. Its official history says it was established in 1957 by Wayne Ross, who raised beef cattle and produced milk until 1980, and then slowly switched to raising berries, pumpkins, maple syrup and Christmas trees. The history says that Don, a University of New Hampshire graduate, returned to the farm in 1999.
Under a 2007 agricultural-preservation agreement with the state Division of Resources and Economic Development, the property must remain a working farm, and cannot be sold for other reasons.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)