Supreme Court settles family dispute over inheritance of farm

A father, who had promised his son that he would inherit a portion of the family farm and later disinherited him over a dispute, underwent a long legal process against his offspring. The son claimed to have worked at the farm for token wages for years under the promise that he would one day inherit a part of it. Now the Supreme Court has finally settled the matter.

The Supreme Court has settled a long-running dispute between a farmer and his son over the inheritance of the family farm. David Guest promised his son Andrew that he would inherit a portion of the farm on his parents’ death. Andrew was a teenager at the time and, in reliance on that promise, he worked on the farm for most of his life for token wages. A family dispute arose, which resulted in Andrew being disinherited. He took legal action to assert his right to inherit, based on the promise that had been made to him and because he had upheld his side of the bargain by working for low wages. 

The case lasted several years and has now been finally settled in the Supreme Court. It held that the appropriate solution would be an award to the son of his expected inheritance by means of a reversionary interest under a trust of the farm, with his parents having a life interest in the meantime. This would mean that the parents would retain the farm, but it would revert to Andrew on their death. The court recognised that this could cause personal problems if the relationship between father and son had broken down irretrievably. It therefore offered an alternative remedy whereby, if the parents preferred, an immediate monetary payment could be paid to Andrew, which would be discounted to allow for his accelerated receipt of his inheritance during the life of his parents, which he would not have expected. If the parents chose the second option and the two sides could not agree a compensatory sum, the issue could be remitted back to a judge of the Chancery Division for determination. 

Please contact our Private Wealth Disputes team if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article.