JCM Farming
JCM Farming, Inc. is an agricultural company based in Carlsbad, California. It was incorporated by the heirs of a date farming operation in the Imperial Valley in the early 1900s. The firm also owns and operate the Oasis Ranch near Indio, California in the Coachella Valley. The firm has been involved in a number of lawsuits demanding crop dusters, aircraft and hot air balloons quit flying over their property. JCM Farming, Inc., and its affiliates own dozens of properties throughout Riverside County and an almond farm in Stanislaus County. JCM Farming has acquired properties as early as the 1970s.
JCM Farming does not publicly disclose information as to its activities, although the company states itself as operating in the agricultural sector.
Press reports indicate the Oasis Ranch facility was built in 1999 on 24 acres and is surrounded by a 24-foot wall 14-feet thick. Other defenses include a partial moat, guard dogs, armed guards and video cameras. The compound includes two large buildings and a Moorish-style bell tower. The company describes the ranch as “an eighty-acre olive farm.” Other documents indicate the farm is in fact a "private event and meeting center" — "a respite for and marketed to state departments, foreign dignitaries, diplomats, Fortune 500 executives and their boards, ultra high net worth individuals and their families and celebrities."
Legal issues
Thirteen of fifteen balloonists named in the suit have been forced out of business. In mid-August 2011, the defendants were to inspect the enclosure in order to evaluate claims of $750,000 in business damage caused by the over flights. On August 15th, the legal actions were dropped by the firm and the inspection cancelled. The balloonists then petitioned the Superior Court for JCM Farming to pay their legal fees, arguing the balloonists perform public good. The Superior Court denied this request, and the balloonists appealed. The three judge panel at the Fourth Appellate District, Division Three, denied their request affirming the lower court's ruling and stated that "this lawsuit did not result in the enforcement of an important right affecting the public interest." JCM Farming was then awarded recovery of "costs on appeal," further emphasizing the lack of public good performed by balloonists.Additionally, JCM Farming sued the FAA, the USDA, and an airplane operator under contract with the United States to stop frequent, dangerously low, overflights by the operator over the ranch. The parties settled with a lifetime restraining order established over the property whereby the airplane operator may only fly over the ranch with JCM Farming's unilateral permission.
In June 2020, JCM Farming filed a public safety federal lawsuit in the Southern District of California to obtain EPA enforcement of federal chemical labelling laws.