A dedicated daughter who worked 70 hours a week on her family’s farm has won a £1.1million payout from the business following a court battle with her 81-year-old mother.
Lucy Habberfield successfully argued at the High Court that her father Frank, who died in 2014 aged 84, had promised her a stake in the farm in return for her help with the business.
The 50-year-old began working on the 220-acre Woodrow Farm near Yeovil, South Somerset, in the 1980s, earning as little as £40-50 a week despite working six-day weeks.
Lucy told the High Court that she was instrumental in building up its dairy herd, milked the cows daily, and had just five weeks holiday in more than three decades.
When she married her husband Stuart in 1999 they moved to a house nearby and he began helping out on the £2.5million farm as well.
Lucy Habberfield was awarded £1.1m for working at her family farm in Yeovil, Somerset (pictured), for more than 30 years after a court battle with her 81-year-old mother
They both worked at the farm until 2013 when a ‘fight in the milking parlour’ between Lucy and her sister led to the couple resigning.
The court heard it was ‘impossible to say’ whose fault it was, but Lucy and Stuart left the farm the same day and never returned.
After the fight her mother, Jane Habberfield, said she was ‘quite certain’ that she and Frank had never promised her daughter that the farm would one day be hers which led to the battle in court.
Mr Justice Birss ruled in her daughter’s favour, awarding her a £1,170,000 stake in the farm as Lucy had ‘kept her side of the bargain’ by working at the farm for low pay.
Mr Justice Birss at the High Court (pictured) ruled that her father, Frank, had given her assurances that her work at the 220-acre Woodrow Farm
He added that she was ‘clearly devoted to her father’ and that Frank had given her assurances, that were ‘not idle or casual remarks’, that her work would not be for nothing.
‘They were made in a manner in which it was intended Lucy would take seriously – to continue her commitment to the farm, to continue to work hard and to accept the wages and hours she was working. She did so,’ Mr Justice Birss said.
‘Lucy had been assured that the farming business would be hers in future after Frank could not run it anymore.’
Jane said she ‘wished to be fair’ to all four of her children, and the judge accepted that Lucy had not been promised the whole farm.
He ruled that she was entitled to a lump sum equal to the value of farmland and farm buildings, which were worth £1,170,000 in February last year.
Mr Justice Birss said he hoped the cash could be raised without selling the whole farm and that Jane would not be forced to leave her home.