A multimillionaire farmer’s son cut out of his mother’s £2million will after ‘insulting’ her during a blazing row is locked in a ‘ruinous’ court fight with his younger sister over the family fortune.

Embittered Simon Morton, 64, says 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 says, while his younger sibling, Julie Morton, 62, was discouraged from working at the site as a youngster 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 for 15 years, with mother and son owning half of the estate. 

But after his mother’s death in September 2016, he was shocked to discover she had left her share – worth about £2million – to his sister, who a judge claimed had ‘undermined’ her mother’s trust in Mr Morton. 

Some of Mr Morton’s relatives have since testified they believe Jennifer made the move following an alleged row in 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 that forced Julie to hand over around £1million – half her inheritance.

But in another court clash last September, Mr Morton was ordered to hand over around £700,000 to his sister, representing her stake over the years in the profit made by the farming partnership.

Now the siblings are at war in court for a third time – racking up ‘ruinous’ legal costs – with Mr Morton challenging the payout to his sister in London’s Court of Appeal.

The court heard Mr Morton had worked alongside his parents since he was 21, expanding the 400-acre site and introducing innovations to help profits boom. 

During the High Court hearing in Manchester, he said 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.

High Court judge Mark Halliwell said tension had developed between mother and son in Jennifer’s last years amid 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.

‘As Jennifer’s health started to deteriorate and her suspicions of Simon grew, Jennifer became increasingly dependent on Julie for assistance and advice in relation to the management of her affairs,’ added Judge Halliwell.

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.

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Julie’s husband, David Simpson, gave evidence to the High Court that his mother-in-law wrote Simon out of her will partly due to an alleged incident in which he ‘addressed his mother in a way that was insulting and provocative’.

And Jennifer’s cousin, Judith Inglis, also suggested Simon had been ‘unkind and disrespectful,’ although the judge said that such behaviour – even if true – didn’t explain her decision to change her will.

The judge added 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.

He commented: ‘Julie also had reason to be aggrieved about Simon’s conduct, not least for the secretive way in which he had handled the acquisition.’

Despite Julie’s role, 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 dad’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.’

But in a subsequent September 2022 ruling, the same judge found Mr Morton’s sister was entitled to more than £700,000, representing her stake in the profits since 2016 when she inherited her mother’s portion.

That decision set the scene for a fresh court clash, with the two siblings’ KCs now debating in the Court of Appeal the fairness of awarding Julie such a large share.

Thomas Dumont, Simon’s KC. saidordering him to pay the sum to his sister would be ‘unconscionable’.

Simon and his wife, Alison, would have had to raise £2million within six months to buy out Julie from the farming partnership, said Mr Dumont, and this was simply not feasible for them.

It was unfair that they should now be compelled to pay out a share of the partnership profits despite them long wishing to be free to run the farm on their own.

‘In plain terms, too much money was being demanded from Simon and Alison as the price of keeping the farm,’ argued Mr Dumont.

After half a day in court, appeal judges Lord Justice Lewison, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Nugee reserved their decision on the case, to be given at a later date.

Outside court after the 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.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk