Cheese makers headed for court

Feuding cheese makers Morning Fresh Dairy in Bellvue and the now-defunct Bingham Hill Dairy are heading for a showdown in Larimer District Court on March 26.

A three-day bench trial is scheduled before Judge John-David Sullivan that pits Tom and Kristi Johnson, former owners of Bingham Hill, against Robert and Lori Graves, owners of Morning Fresh. The breach of contract suit, filed last March 20 by the Johnsons, alleges that the Graveses stole Bingham Hill cheese recipes and cheese-making techniques by hiring Bingham Hill’s former cheese maker, Brad LaRocco.

LaRocco is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with Mathew Lucas, Morning Fresh’s general manager. The lawsuit asks that unspecified financial damages be awarded to the Johnsons, who closed their dairy in February 2006.

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The Johnsons began their business in late 1999 and had early success with their original cheese recipes, winning first prize in the American Cheese Society contest in 2000. By 2002, Bingham Hill was producing 80,000 pounds of cheese annually and in 2003 the Johnsons received a Bravo! Emerging Entrepreneur Award from the Northern Colorado Business Report.

But the Johnsons’ business faltered in 2005 when Bingham Hill lost a major contract with a gourmet grocery chain in California. LaRocco was fired in September 2005, according to court documents, and hired by Morning Fresh that December.

According to court documents, LaRocco was hired by Bingham Hill in June 2002 as a dishwasher with no previous cheese-making experience. Everything he learned about cheese making, according to the documents, he learned under the tutelage of the Johnsons.

The lawsuit contends that LaRocco violated the terms of an agreement he signed pledging not to disclose any of the Johnsons’ cheese recipes or cheese-making methods when he immediately began producing a cheese identical to Rustic Blue, one of Bingham Hill’s prize-winning cheeses, for Morning Fresh.

Morning Fresh allegedly sold the cheese under the name Formaggio LaRocco, the suit contends. The Johnsons further allege that Morning Fresh violated the Colorado Trade Secrets Act and caused them to lose interest from a group they were courting as buyers for Bingham Hill.

Tim Dow, the Johnsons’ attorney, sought an injunction against Morning Fresh to sell the cheeses when the suit was initially filed. “The defendants have merely tweaked Bingham Hill’s recipes and production processes in a few insignificant ways just enough to attempt to make a very slightly different product which it claims to be its own, obviously having used Bingham Hill’s trade secrets as a starting point,” Dow’s filing states.

However, Judge Sullivan ruled against a preliminary injunction in August, saying he would consider a request for a permanent injunction after the trial.

Cheese ‘on hold’

Morning Fresh has denied all of the claims against it, stating in a court filing that the Johnsons were trying to “make the defendants the scapegoats for the plaintiffs’ poor management and business failures.”

On Jan. 18, LaRocco filed a request for summary judgment to be removed as a defendant in the suit. Meanwhile, Morning Fresh has discontinued producing cheese, telling customers who inquire that cheese has been “put on hold” until further notice is posted on the dairy’s Web site and in billing information.

Morning Fresh owner Robert Graves did not return a telephone call from the Business Report seeking comment.

Tom Johnson was hired May 1, 2006 by the Fort Collins Coloradoan as business editor but left that position a few months later. The Johnsons have since divested themselves of Bingham Hill’s equipment and moved out of the area.

But their legacy may be revived by a local dairy that’s interested in consulting with them on cheese making and possibly producing some of their recipes.

Meg Cattell, owner of Windsor Organic Dairy, said some sort of future collaboration is possible. “We’ve just been talking to Tom and Kristi because we’ve known them for a long time and almost went into business together,” she said. “We haven’t made a commitment but we wouldn’t be making their cheeses because we feel those are proprietary.”

Cattell said she’d like to add Bingham Hill-style cheese to the organic milk and other products she sells but said that would have to wait until after a court ruling on the lawsuit.