The son of a farmer has lost an inheritance battle after saying he ‘doesn’t like cows.’
Clive Shaw, 55, went to court after discovering his parents had written him out of their wills.
Mr Shaw claimed that he worked on his parents’ farm from a very young age and did not pursue other career opportunities based on a promise that he would inherit the £1m farm.
However, the parents’ wills do not provide for him and leave the bulk of the estate to his sister.
Mr Shaw’s mother claims that he “hated the cows” on the farm and that he was incapable of managing the business.
His sister told the High Court in London that he often calls cows “stinking, horrible, rotten creatures.”
Judge Linwood said, “There was a family expectation that Clive, as the eldest child and only son, would inherit the farm – in the sense of it being a family business – not purely as an asset, but as a working farm, to be inherited by Clive as a farmer.
“Clive was promised the farm would be his inheritance from about 1978 onwards, but those assurances were conditional upon Clive working properly on the farm in the manner of a dedicated, long-term farmer.”
He added, “However, Clive was not sufficiently interested and his lifestyle choices were such that he did not want to take on the farm and dedicate himself to it, as his interests were elsewhere, in driving and engineering.”
