Woman wins fight with charity over farm

LEEDS, England, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- An English woman who spent years working on her parents' farm only to learn they had willed it to an animal charity has succeeded in overturning the bequest.

But Christine Gill's legal battle may not be over. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals may appeal Friday's ruling that John Gill "coerced" his wife into the bequest, The Times of London reported.

Christine Gill, 59, said her father, who died in 1999, always told her the 287-acre farm, Potto Carr in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, would eventually be hers. But she discovered when her mother died in 2006 that their wills left the farm to the RSPCA.

"I have no idea why my father did what he did, or why he wanted to do it," Gill said. "If we had had an argument, if he had been depressed, if there had been a rift, then I might have understood it. But there was nothing."

Gill, a university lecturer, and her husband spent 1.3 million pounds (more than $2 million) pursuing the case. At one point, she rejected a settlement offer from the RSPCA.

"Nothing would have compensated me for the loss of my land," she said.