[Birch v Birch [2020] QCA 31 (28 February 2020)

Birch v Birch [2018] QSC 289 (16 November 2018)]

Doug Birch worked on his parents farm 'Fairyland' for his whole life. In exchange for his commitment, his parents gifted him 1/3rd of the property.

After his father's death, his mother Betty gifted him another 1/3rd of the property. She also wrote a letter to her other children explaining to them that it was her wish that the farm not be sold off and that Doug be able to continue the family business.

Betty also did a new Will that gifted the final 1/3rd of the property to Doug on her death, on the proviso that he pay his siblings the value of it.

Two years after the transfer, just before she was to move into a nursing home, Betty started legal proceedings against Doug to get her 1/3rd of the property back. She was egged on by her other sons Colin, Stanley and Geoffrey.

What spurred Betty's change of mind? And did she get her share back?