Judge won’t block Alpenrose Dairy sale, urges mediation

PORTLAND — A Multnomah County judge on Tuesday declined to block the sale of Alpenrose Dairy to a Seattle-area competitor.

But the previously announced sale still isn’t certain.

Judge Jerry B. Hodson nonetheless ordered two warring sides of the family that owns Alpenrose and Smith Brothers Farms, the prospective buyer, to engage in mediation. He also left the door open to continued litigation, which could push the family members to find common ground.

He ruled immediately after hearing closing arguments and grew emotional as he addressed the family that owns the dairy, a faction of which had filed the suit to stop the sale and had mounted its own bid to buy the dairy.

“It’s been sad listening to this case,” Hodson said. “Take a minute and step back and think a minute about how you’ve lost sight of what it means to be a family.”

The case had attracted a great deal of attention locally because of the century-old dairy’s longstanding practice of making its land available to community activities. Little League teams use ball fields on dairy property, and the land also includes bicycle and quarter-midget auto racing tracks and an opera house used for community theater productions.

The three siblings who sought to buy the dairy, part-owners and great-great grandchildren of its founder, had accused family members who supported the sale of seeking to block community activities on the land, which another family company would retain in the proposed sale.