Two local brothers have taken their aunt to court after being snubbed from their grandmother’s £2.65m will.

John Maile and Steven Maile claim they were promised West Hook Farm near Okehampton “throughout their lifetime” by their grandmother Mary Stevens.

But the multi-million-pound mixed arable and dairy farm was left jointly to Mary’s two daughters, Sheila Kempthorne and Ruth Maile, the mother of the brothers.

John and Steven alleged that their grandmother Mary made assurances that West Hook Farm would be left to them when they were very young.

They asserted that Mary constantly said words to the effect that “one day this will all be yours”; “who else would it go to?”; and “this is your farm here and I am leaving it to you”.

Sheila claimed that this was false and that there was no clear representation or assurance by Mary that they would inherit the farm.

Mary made a will in 2006 which left her live and deadstock to Steven and John, £10,000 each to her other two grandchildren and the remainder of her estate, including the farm, to Ruth and Sheila equally.

However, in 2011, Mary amended the 2006 will and instead of leaving the farm to Ruth and Sheila, she left it to Steven and John. The rest of her estate remained the same.

This was reversed again, though, five years later, when Mary decided to cancel the previous amendment and left the estate to Ruth and Sheila equally.

Mary died in 2020 at the age of 96.

Suing, the two brothers claimed that “undue influence” was used by their aunt Sheila on their grandmother Mary and that she had cooked up a “cunning plan with her mother’s solicitor to force the deceased into leaving the farm to her daughters,” the court heard.

The civil case was heard over ten days before the Honourable Mr Justice Michael Green at the High Court n Bristol.

Over the course of the trial, the judge heard from witnesses on both sides and from experts.

The court heard how John “secretly” recorded conversations with his grandmother.

The Honourable Mr Justice Green, said: “It appears from his secretly recorded conversations that he was quite prepared to let his grandmother know that he was upset that she had decided not to leave the farm to him and his brother and there is a hectoring tone to what he was saying to her.

“He did not raise his voice but he was clearly pushing her to say something that he knew she would say and which he therefore wanted recorded. That is quite scheming of him. And that appears to be part of his nature.”

John claimed not to remember the reason why he took to recording secretly conversations involving his grandmother.

Steven, Johns older brother, accepted that he and his brother did not spend a great deal of their working time at West Hook Farm and were mainly working on neighbouring Agistment Farm, owned by their parents.

The judge rejected John and Steven’s challenge to the 2016 will amendment and ordered them, their mother and dad Peter Maile to give up possession of West Hook Farm to Sheila.