“Life is too short”, a judge told a father and son who have been battling over their £100,000 collection of vintage tractors. Thomas Lowther, 88, and his son Thomas Lowther jnr, 51, also known as Royston, was urged by the judge to make up with each other as they had not been speaking to one another for several years.
The duo from Darlington had a minor argument regarding the maintenance of a hedge grew out of proportion leading them to be at war with each other and hence started to sell off their entire collection of tractors.
In court, Lowther jnr was ordered to pay £750 as well as £604.28 costs. The judge also told the father-son duo to let bygones be bygones. He said, “Life is just too short for this sort of thing, it is terrible. This is a single-child family and I hope, despite everything, that a line can be drawn under it all as it has got out of hand. I would like to think the situation is not completely irreparable. I am a born optimist and if it is at all possible for the parties to find some degree of closure from this, I would strongly suggest they do so.”
The judge continued by speaking directly to the two men, “Try not to let this define you, look at the positives and look at this as a way of moving on. Try to find some sort of reconciliation. That is a genuine expression of hope rather than an expectation, but life is too short to let this ruin lives.”
The father offered to shake his son his hand to shake, however, the son declined saying “never”.
