Another claim regarding an estate has resulted in what have been described as “ruinous” legal costs. We always recommend mediation in such cases, even if they reach the Court of Appeal, as this case did.
Morton & Anor v Morton [2023] EWCA Civ 700 (20 June 2023)
The case involved two siblings where the trial took place in court in 2021, with the Claimant obtaining an order at the High Court in Manchester last year that forced his sister to give him around £1million which was half her inheritance.
The court heard that the Claimant had worked alongside his parents, helping them expand their 400-acre holding and introducing new innovations and farming techniques to maximise its profits from the time he left agricultural college aged 21.
During the High Court hearing in Manchester, he explained that he gave everything to the business after his father ‘repeatedly assured him that one day Reddish Hall Farm would be his’.
In 2015 the partnership was estimated to be worth around £6million.
High Court judge Mark Halliwell said tension had developed between mother and son in her final years due to her concerns about his handling of the business, and the purchase of a £1.9million farm with family money which his sister was only told about afterwards.
The will of May 2016 ‘gave the whole of her estate to the Claimant’s sister, providing him with a six-month time-limited option to buy out her share in the farm partnership.
The judge said the mother probably changed her will after her daughter ‘undermined her confidence’ in the Claimant whom his sister distrusted over his handling of the farm partnership and the purchase of the £1.9million farm in 2012.
However, there was ‘no substantial evidence the sister had crossed the line from advice and persuasion to coercion or misrepresentation,’ the judge found.
Judge Halliwell found in favour of the Claimant adding £956,850 to his share of the partnership on the basis that he had worked to his detriment on the farm due to his father’s promises that it would be his.
He also granted him a new opportunity to buy his sister out.
But in a subsequent September 2022 ruling, the same judge found that the Claimant’s sister was entitled to more than £700,000, representing annual interest on her share of the farm since 2016 when she inherited her mother’s portion.
The siblings then went to court for a third time, with the Claimant challenging the £700,000 payment to his sister at the Court of Appeal. He succeeded in having the £700,000 bill overturned and leaving his sister facing potentially ‘ruinous’ legal costs. The exact amount will be decided at a later date.
This case, albeit concerning an esoteric point about interest, illustrates the difficulty of estate/will claims, particularly involving promises which can be enforceable in equity.
We always recommend such cases are mediated as they can be very costly, particularly for the eventual loser. We have also seen cases where a winner ends up paying so much in costs that there is nothing left in the estate, turning it into an expensive and ultimately fruitless pyrrhic victory.