South Yorkshire family spends £1m in legal fees while fighting over house worth £245,000

A court has heard how the dispute between Pamela Teasdale, aged 68, her daughter Rebecca Carter, 45, and estranged husband Daniel Teasdale, 73, had left the family “fractured” and was what a judge called “one of the most regrettable pieces of litigation” he had “ever come across”.

The judge, Mr Justice Moor, aired his thoughts in a ruling after overseeing the latest stage of the dispute at a recent appeal hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

The judge said the dispute centred on the ownership of Cow House, a converted barn on Burne Farm, in Todwick, South Yorkshire, where Mrs Carter lived.

Mr and Mrs Teasdale had lived on Burne Farm since shortly after they married in the mid-1970s and were the joint owners, the judge said.

Cow House had been converted about 14 years ago and Mrs Carter, and her husband Andrew Carter, had moved in.

The judge said the dispute over the ownership of Cow House had begun after Mr and Mrs Teasdale separated in 2018.

A family court judge in Leeds had last year ruled that Mrs Carter was “entitled to the transfer of Cow House into her sole name” on “discharge” of a mortgage – after finding that she had been “promised the house if she discharged the mortgage”.

Mrs Teasdale had challenged that ruling.

Mr Justice Moor has dismissed her appeal.

“I have to say that this is one of the most regrettable pieces of litigation that I have ever come across,” he said, in a written ruling published on Tuesday.

“It is not just because this family has become so fractured as a result.

“The total costs of the litigation at the conclusion of the hearing below were approximately £828,000. The costs of this appeal are £220,000.”

He added: “The house at the heart of the dispute, Cow House, is worth £245,000.”

The judge said those figures did not include the costs of underlying “financial remedy proceedings” between Mr and Mrs Teasdale following their separation.