A judge has compared a bitter family feud over a $1 million farm to John B. Keane’s The Field and 1980s US TV soap opera Dallas.
At Family Court, Judge Alec Gabbett made his remarks as he dismissed a mother’s motions for a lockdown and security order against her farmer’s son.
Judge Gabbett said he was discontinuing the entire domestic violence case against the man “for the simple reason that it is a civil matter”.
Judge Gabbett said: “It is unseemly and should not stand in any domestic violence court.”
The farmer’s son leased the farm from his mother after her husband and father died a few years ago and left the farm to his widow. The son’s lawyer, Mairead Doyle, told the court the two fell out after the mother failed to keep a written promise that she would voluntarily transfer the farm to her son.
As evidence, the son told Judge Gabbett that his sister wants the farm. In dismissing the motions for the lockdown and security orders, Judge Gabbett told the mother and son, “This is a disgrace to your dead father and husband.”
At the end of the hearing, both parties wept softly and Judge Gabbett said: “You left a terrible mess today. It’s a shame for both of you. You both should be absolutely ashamed.
“I wonder if that poor man is turning in his grave right now for all the perfect family evidence we’ve heard.”
As evidence, the mother told the court that she was afraid of her son. However, Judge Gabbett denied her motions, saying: “I’m not sure how scared she is of this man. She is a very capable woman.”
Judge Gabbett added he was very pleased with the evidence from the longtime Community Guard in the case, who told the court the mother was “a strong woman”. “She’s not a wallflower and she can do business if she wants to.”
Judge Gabbett said the land in question was “very valuable,” noting, “This is that of John B. Keane The field“, when the story of the rural exodus between mother and son is told. “It’s like Dallas.”
