Spilt milk? Proprietary estoppel on the farm

In 2016, the so-called “cowshed Cinderella” case of Davies v Davies [2016] EWCA Civ 463 reached the Court of Appeal and was later refused permission to appeal by the Supreme Court. It was the latest of a series of appellate decisions where the doctrine of proprietary estoppel has been applied, with varying degrees of success, in the context of farms. Walton v Walton (unreported, 1994), Gillett v Holt [2000] EWCA Civ 66, Cook v Thomas [2010] EWCA Civ 227, Suggitt v Suggitt [2012] EWCA Civ 1140, Shirt v Shirt [2012] EWCA Civ 1029 and the leading decision of the House of Lords in Thorner v Major [2009] 1 WLR 776 were all cases concerning farms and farmers.