Multi-millionaire farmer’s son whose mother left her £2M share of family farm to his younger sister WINS court fight over fortune – leaving his sibling facing ‘ruinous’ legal costs

• Simon Morton, 64, devoted his adult life to Reddish Hall Farm, in Lymm, Cheshire

A multimillionaire farmer’s son who was cut out of his mother’s £2million will has left his younger sister facing ‘ruinous’ legal costs after beating her in a court fight over the family fortune.

Simon Morton, 64, said he devoted his adult life to toiling on his parents’ land at Reddish Hall Farm, in Lymm, Cheshire, ‘working long hours for only modest pay’ and helping build up the farm until it was worth £6million.

His father, Geoffrey Morton, ‘repeatedly assured him that one day Reddish Hall Farm would be his,’ he said, while his younger sibling, Julie Morton, now 62, was from an early age discouraged from working on the farm and made a career for herself in business.

After his father died in 2001, he carried on the farming partnership with his mother Jennifer Morton, with mother and son each ultimately owning half.

But after his mother’s death in September 2016, he was shocked to discover she had left her share – worth about £2million after debts were taken into account – to his sister.

Simon Morton outside the Court of Appeal in London for an earlier hearing

Julie Morton now faces ‘ruinous’ legal costs – also pictured outside the Court of Appeal

Some of Mr Morton’s relatives have since testified that they believe Jennifer made the move partly due to an alleged heated conversation during which he ‘addressed his mother in a way that was insulting and provocative’.

The siblings clashed in court in 2021, with Simon winning a ruling at the High Court in Manchester last year that forced Julie to hand over around £1million – half her inheritance.

But in another court clash last September, Mr Morton was ordered to give around £700,000 to his sister, representing seven years’ worth of annual interest on her £2million stake in the farming partnership.

The siblings went to war in court for a third time last week, with Mr Morton challenging the £700,000 payout to his sister in London’s Court of Appeal.

And he has now won, succeeding in having the £700,000 bill overturned and leaving his sister facing potentially ‘ruinous’ legal costs after losing the battle. The exact sum will be decided at a later date.

The court heard that Mr Morton had worked alongside his parents, helping them expand their 400-acre holding and introducing new innovations and farming techniques to maximise the business’ 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’.

Geoffrey Morton died in 2001, after which Simon and his mother carried on the family farming partnership, which was estimated in 2015 to be worth around £6million.

The ‘ruinous’ court battle between the siblings is over the inheritance of the £6million family estate, Reddish Hall Farm, in Cheshire (pictured)

Ruling on the first clash between the siblings, High Court judge Mark Halliwell said tension had developed between mother and son in Jennifer’s last years due to her concerns about his handling of the business, and the purchase of a £1.9million farm in 2012 with family money which his sister Julie was only told about afterwards.

Jennifer’s final will of May 2016 ‘gave the whole of her estate to Julie,’ although giving Simon a six-month time limited option to buy out her share in the farm partnership.

The judge said Jennifer probably changed her will after her daughter ‘undermined her confidence’ in Simon, who Julie distrusted over his handling of the farm partnership and the purchase of the £1.9million farm in 2012.

However, there was ‘no substantial evidence Julie crossed the line from advice and persuasion to coercion or misrepresentation,’ the judge found.

In a ruling given in January last year, Judge Halliwell handed victory to Mr Morton, 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.

‘It was important to Geoffrey for the farm business to be passed on to the next generation of the family,’ the judge said.

‘To achieve this, he sought to encourage in Simon an expectation that it would be left to him.’

He also granted him a new opportunity to buy his sister out.

But in a subsequent September 2022 ruling, the same judge found that Mr Morton’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.

Read more: Embittered son, 64, whose mother left her £2million share of the family farm to his younger sister, 62, after ‘insulting’ her during a blazing row is going head-to-head with his sibling for a third time in ‘ruinous’ court battle

Appealing last week, Simon’s barrister Thomas Dumont KC argued that the judge should have allowed him to use laws governing partnership buy-outs to avoid making an interest payment.

Under Section 42 (1) of the Partnership Act 1890, buying members of a partnership can avoid paying interest to the seller if they are exercising an option to make a buy-out.

The KC said that, although Simon had not bought out his sister in the months after the option first came into effect because he couldn’t afford the price being asked, the judge had effectively extended the time limit for a buy-out in his judgment last year.

Giving judgment, appeal judges Lord Justice Lewison, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Nugee agreed and overturned the order for the £700,000 interest to be paid to Julie.

Lord Justice Lewison said the judge in the High Court had been wrong to find that Simon was excluded from using partnership law to avoid having to pay his sister the interest.

Because he was intending to take advantage of an option to buy her out, which was extended by the High Court ruling, he ought not to have to make the £700,000 payment, he found.

‘The dispute is an unfortunate family dispute about a farming partnership,’ he said in his judgment.

‘If an option in the partnership contract is exercised, there is no entitlement to interest.

‘An option is a choice between two (or more) possibilities. If there is no choice there can be no option.

‘In my judgment, therefore, Julie is not entitled to interest.’

Outside court after the Court of Appeal hearing, lawyers said the exact cost of the three court fights between the siblings has not yet been calculated, but would be ‘ruinous’ for the loser.

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