Brothers told £2.65m family farm ‘one day will be yours’ by their late grandmother are embroiled in bitter court battle after being cut from will

Told that their grandmother’s £2.65million family farm ‘will be yours one day’, the two siblings are caught up in a bitter court fight after they were excluded from her grandmother’s will.

Grandmother Mary Stevens, who died in 2020 aged 96, left her 170-acre West Hook Farm, near Okehampton, Devon, to her two daughters, the siblings’ mother Ruth Maile, 73, and their aunt Sheila Kempthorne, 69.

But John Maile, 37, and Steven Maile, 40, took the case to court, claiming they were repeatedly told they would inherit the multimillion-pound arable and dairy farm.

The court heard how Ms Stevens promised them at lunch on Sunday: ‘One day this will all be yours.’

The couple claimed they worked long hours on the farm in exchange for little more than ‘pocket money’, based on promises made.

Although the brothers were left equal shares of West Hook Farm in 2011, Ms. Stevens wrote an amended will in 2016, leaving it to their mother and aunt, Sheila. This was done to “be fairer to Sheila’s family,” according to a court.

Instead, the Maile brothers were allowed to keep the farm’s animals.

Now a court has thrown out the brothers’ case, ruling that ‘scary’ John Maile tried to pressure his grandmother to change her will and even began secretly recording their conversations.

John Maile, 37, pressured his grandmother Mary Stevens to change her will and recorded their conversations was “appalling”, a judge ruled

Grandmother Mary Stevens, who died in 2020 aged 96, left her 170-acre West Hook Farm (pictured) near Okehampton, Devon, to her two daughters.

The brothers, who took legal action, claimed that their aunt exerted “undue influence” on their grandmother and had prepared a “cunning plan” with her mother’s lawyer to ensure that she and her sister would inherit the farm.

The couple’s lawyers claimed Ms Stevens lacked ‘testamentary capacity’ and that she lacked ‘knowledge and consent’ to the changes made to the 2016 will.

The mother, Mrs Kempthorne, sided with her sons against her sister in an attempt to overturn the 2016 amendment, despite being a major beneficiary.

But Mr Justice Green at Bristol Supreme Court threw out the brothers’ case, noting John Maile’s “scheming” and “frightening” behavior during family feuds.

The court heard West Hook Farm was bought by the family about 100 years ago and has been farmed by them ever since.

The farmland includes lucrative pastures, arable land, a six-bed farmhouse, holiday cottages and outbuildings, all valued at around £2.65 million.

The brothers, their mother and their aunt worked the land as part of an existing farming partnership established by their grandmother.

They also run a partnership with their father, Peter Maile, on neighboring Agistment Farm, which takes up much of their time and effort.

The amended 2016 will left Aunt Sheila Kempthorne an equal share of the farm with her sister.

John and Steven’s mother, 73-year-old Ruth Maile, also objected to the will, which was changed in 2016

Grandmother Mrs Stevens decided to leave John and Steven an equal share of the farm in 2011, but changed her mind five years later.

His Honor Judge Green said the case was ‘largely driven by John, probably in conjunction with his mother’, adding: ‘he is very determined to get what he believes rightfully belongs to him and his brother’.

When John learned that Mrs Stevens had been stripped of her right to inherit the farm, he even began secretly recording conversations with her, ‘although he claimed not to remember why’.

The judge said Steven Maile, in contrast, seemed more ‘timid’ and ‘more ready to accept if his grandmother decided to treat both sides of the family fairly by leaving an equal share for his mother and aunt’.

After 2016, Ms Stevens did not appoint her grandchildren as heirs to her farm despite “pressure from the Maile family”, the judge said.

‘This pressure is evident from the secret recordings John made,’ he said.

‘Apart from the meeting on 2 June 2016, John appears to have started recording after he started talking to his grandmother, perhaps thinking she might have something useful to say.’

John, Steven and their mother testified that Mrs Stevens told them, ‘I think I did something I shouldn’t have done’ about disabling her grandchildren, and repeatedly mentioned that she wanted to change her will back in their favour.

The court heard West Hook Farm was bought by the family about 100 years ago and has been farmed by them ever since.

But the judge said it was clear the grandmother stuck to her guns despite pressure from John and may have only said it to ‘pacify’ him.

“He never tried to change his will to leave the farm to its beneficiaries,” the judge said.

‘John’s displeasure at the gift of the farm to him and his brother is palpable and I believe was felt by the deceased as well. He was already sensitive to John’s unhappiness with the situation, but I think he knew what he was doing.

‘He was saying something to calm his grandson down, but he had no intention of changing his mind.’

Commenting on John’s character, he told the court: ‘I could see his persistence could be a bit frightening, especially for someone like his grandmother who was in her 90s.

‘From the secretly recorded conversations I heard, it appears that he was quite prepared to express his regret that his grandmother had decided not to leave the farm to him and his brother, and that there was an oppressive tone in what he said to her.

‘He didn’t raise his voice – he knew he was recording the conversation – but he was clearly trying to force her to say something he knew she would say and therefore wanted it recorded.

‘This is a very planned behavior. And that seems to be part of his nature.’

John claimed that his grandmother had promised him and his brother West Hook when they were still teenagers, and he recalled once doing so while showing her the original 1927 auction documents for the property.

The words were repeated several times around the table at the family’s Sunday lunch, he insisted.

On top of this, the brothers claimed that they had only worked the land for ‘pocket money’ and therefore had the right to expect to be rewarded for their labor.

However, the judge rejected claims that they worked for very little pay, commenting: ‘It was quite misleading that they said they only received very small amounts of pocket money.

‘From the oral evidence it emerged that the plaintiffs had quite significant savings, most of which were invested in the Maile partnership.’

Addressing the brothers’ accusations that their aunt Sheila ‘secretly arranged’ for Mary to meet with the family’s lawyer in February 2016 to disinherit the two siblings, the judge described the allegation against the lawyer as ‘extraordinary’ and ruled that the charge of undue influence ‘should never have been made’.

“I didn’t detect that Sheila had a cunning plan, much less [Mary’s solicitor]”To persuade the deceased to depart from the 2011 decree,” he told the court.

‘In summary, I find that there was no clear and unequivocal representation or assurance that the deceased would leave the farm to the plaintiffs in his will.’

The judge rejected John and Steven’s challenge to the 2016 probate law and ordered them and their mother and father, Peter Maile, to leave ownership of West Hook Farm to Sheila, as executor of Mary’s estate.