Court awards farm to son in proprietary estoppel dispute

A judge has found in favour of a son who was promised he would inherit the family farm.

The High Court heard that Lincolnshire farmer John Spencer had said on a number of occasions that he intended to leave his farm and land to his son, Michael.  

However, when John died in October 2018, it transpired that he had changed his will a few months earlier. Instead of the farmland passing to his son, as had been his request in a previous will, it now went into a trust.

The defendants were the estate of John Spencer and Michael’s sisters, Penny Spencer and Jane Flower.

The case represented a typical instance of agricultural “proprietary estoppel”, with the claimant, who had left school at 15 to work on the farm, demonstrating that a promise had been made to him, that he had relied upon it and in so doing had missed out on other possible career opportunities.

Witnesses all referred to conversations with John that led them to believe his intention was that Michael would inherit.

Finding in favour of Michael, Mr Justice Rajah said: “There were general statements made by the deceased… The gist of which was that Michael would inherit the farm. They were made on many occasions. These were assurances intended to be taken seriously – they were John’s means of mollifying Michael and ensuring he stayed committed to the farm.

“If John gave others to understand that Michael was going to inherit the land, it is likely that he also gave Michael that understanding.”

Commenting on the ruling, Johnny Coulthard, senior associate at law firm Burnetts (which was not involved in the case), told Farmers Weekly: “The problem with many [proprietary estoppel claims] is that the time the promise was made is often a very long time ago. Often the farm has developed since then, there may be diversified enterprises and alternative incomes and it can become harder to argue that the whole farm should go to one person.”

Estimates suggest around 80 per cent of farming proprietary estoppel cases settle out of court.