Eirian Davies, 45, was awarded the compensation by the High Court for the 30 years of work she put in on the farm and for losing out on her young days of freedom.
But in yet another twist in the bitter and long-running legal battle, her parents Tegwyn, 75, and Mary Davies, 76, are now seeking leave to appeal, so she is still yet to receive a penny.
Eirian Davies, pictured, was awarded £1.3million for her 30 years' work she put in on her parent's farm
The dispute centres on the Welsh family’s 800-acre dairy farm in Carmarthenshire. Miss Davies had been assured that she would ultimately take it over, along with its pedigree milking herd, when her parents retired.
But following a row her parents began proceedings to evict her, and she then launched a legal campaign for her ‘rightful share’ of Caeremlyn Farm.
Her claims included missing out going to Young Farmers’ Club dances as a teenager with her sisters, Enfys and Eleri, as she stayed at home to look after the cows.
Miss Davies won her case and last year a challenge by her parents was dismissed by the Appeal Court. Yesterday a figure – £1.3million – was for the first time set on the amount she deserved by the High Court in Cardiff.
She told the original hearing: ‘They always told me that the farm would be left to me. Even on my birthday, when the other girls were having things, they would say, “You will have the damn lot one day, it will all be yours”.’
She said her sisters once paraded through the poultry shed in their ball gowns while she prepared turkeys for Christmas. Her father would regularly warn her ‘not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg’ if she complained about her treatment.
Miss Davies claimed that until she reached the age of 21, she was paid nothing for her work and, after that, there was a period when she was paid just £15 a day for milking the cows, although sometimes she received more.
The court heard that she had a ‘passionate interest’ in the herd, and by 1989 was the only daughter at the farm after her sisters began other careers.
When Miss Davies left to work elsewhere her father begged her to return to the farm.
But although her parents had ‘pinned their hopes’ on their hardworking daughter, over the years they became increasingly annoyed by her relationships with men and the prospect of her having children.
Tegwyn and Mary Davies are photographed outside the Royal Courts of Justice, in London
Lord Justice Floyd, sitting at the Appeal Court, said this concern was not so much the men involved but ‘any children that they had and how that may impact upon their duties to keep the business in the family’.
He said: ‘Her mother referred to a string of men, to whom she referred as “wretches”, with kids behind them.’
Miss Davies claims she was shown a draft will in 2009 that left the lion’s share of the farm to her. But her parents subsequently proposed to place the farm in trust for the benefit of all three sisters equally.
Family relations hit rock bottom in August 2012 during an altercation in which milk was thrown over Miss Davies by her mother, and she and her father ended up wrestling on the floor, where she bit her father’s leg.
It led to the legal battle in which Mr and Mrs Davies sought to evict their daughter from the farm cottage, where she still lives close to her parents’ farmhouse, while she fought for her share of the farm.
The Appeal Court found Miss Davies had relied on her parents’ promises and thrown herself into working on the farm. She was thus entitled to a ‘beneficial interest’ in the business.
Dismissing her parents’ appeal against the ruling, Lord Justice Floyd described the dispute as ‘in many ways a tragic case’.
‘The bitterness between the parties was such that each had few, if any, good words to say about the other,’ he said.
‘The fact remained, however, that between them they had over the years built up a prodigious Holstein pedigree milking herd and a highly successful business.’
Mr and Mrs Davies argued in court that compensation should be measured by a sum of money enabling their daughter to buy her own house.
The court said this would not truly reflect Miss Davies’s suffering, nor the nature of the promise that she was made.
It was ruled that the farm was worth about £3.8million and an ‘appropriate award’ for Miss Davies would be £1.3million for her to start a farm of her own.
Outside court yesterday Miss Davies said: ‘My mother is now seeking leave to appeal against the judge’s decision.
‘I don’t think now would be the right time to talk.
‘I don’t care what anyone says, I know the truth. One day I will write a book.’ She added: ‘There are no winners in this situation.’
Wiljo Salen, partner at Hugh James solicitors in Cardiff, said: ‘I can say that Miss Davies is looking forward to concluding what has been a very hurtful and distressing period.’
Miss Davies’s parents declined to comment.
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