Sam James has taken his mother and sisters to court over his father’s will, she he says he was wrongly written out of
A farmer’s son is suing his elderly mother and sisters after he was ‘completely cut out’ of his dementia sufferer father’s £3million will.
Sam James, 60, says he devoted his life to working for his father, Allen James, on the promise that one day hundreds of valuable acres would be his.
But he now claims his mother, Sandra James, ‘intercepted’ his father’s will and, after he began suffering from dementia, had him sign another.
The new will, made two years before Mr James’ 2012 death, cut out Sam, despite his years of ‘graft’ on the farm and in the family haulage business, London’s High Court heard.
The son claims the will was only signed because of his father’s dementia and ‘pressure’ from his mother.
His father’s illness was so far advanced that he lacked the legal capacity to make a valid will, he says.
His mother Mrs James, 79, says she objects to being painted as a ‘devious money-grabber’ by her ‘financially driven’ son.
No promise was ever made that Sam would inherit Pennymore Pitt Farm in Dorset, she and her daughters, Karen and Serena, insist.
His mother Sandra (left) and sister Karen (right) say the son is not entitled to anything more
Penelope Reed QC, representing the son, told Judge Paul Matthews that he had left school early and worked in the family business for nearly 35 years.
He was an ‘absolute grafter’, who ‘worked his socks off’, she added.
He toiled increasingly hard as his dad grew older, eventually becoming the ‘driving force’ of the business.
‘Sam has positioned his whole life on the basis of the assurances given to him, and reasonably believed by him, that he would inherit Pennymore.’
In 2004, Allen James, a ‘self-made’ but ‘frugal’ man, gave instructions to a solicitor to draw up a will which gifted Pennymore to Sam, the court heard.
But he claims his mother, who lives in a farmhouse on the land, ‘took exception to it’ and intercepted the document, which was never executed, his QC told court.
The marriage between Sandra and Allen, who was 81 when he died, had been ‘difficult’, with his refusal to put any assets in her name a source of tension, Miss Reed continued.
In the father’s 2010 will, under which Karen got another part of Pennymore, with the rest going to Sandra (right), and on her death to their second daughter, Serena Underwood (left)
However, in 2007, he gave 193 acres to his daughter, Karen James, 58, and in 2009, put over £800,000 in cash and the rest of Pennymore, where the family kept cattle and sheep and dealt in hay and straw, into his and Sandra’s joint names.
Then came the 2010 will, under which Karen got another part of Pennymore, with the rest going to Sandra, and on her death to their second daughter, Serena Underwood, 55.
But Miss Reed continued: ‘By 2010, the deceased had been suffering from dementia for a number of years, something his wife and daughters were well aware of.
‘As a result, there is clearly a real doubt about the deceased’s capacity to make the alleged 2010 will.’
But a lawyer for Sam’s mother and sisters told the court they accept Sam was a ‘hard worker’.
But they say he ‘did not care for school’ and, having quit education, had no option other than to work in the family business.
The row centres on the family’s farm in Dorset, which the son says he is entitled to
No promises were made about him having Pennymore, but he had ‘persuaded’ his father to give instructions for the 2004 document leaving him the farm, they say.
‘The draft will was nothing more than a poorly thought-through attempt by Allen to keep the son happy, and one which he almost instantly regretted,’ claimed the mother’s barrister Steven Ball.
The family’s business partnership was dissolved in 2009 – Sam walking away with assets worth £1.3m – in the hope that that would ‘draw a line’ under his complaints, the barrister added.
Mr Ball told the court: ‘The son has gone to considerable lengths to cast Sandra as some kind of devious money-grabber.’
The court heard Mr James has no intention of throwing his mother out of her home if he wins the case.
Mr Ball said he would grant the pensioner the right to stay in her house on Pennymore for as long as she wants.
Judge Matthews will give his ruling on the dispute at a later date.