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Grandson wins 850k battle after grandad who paid for wedding wanted money back

Businessman Robert Stokes spent 720,000 on his grandson's 1m home and tens of thousands more - including over 10,000 on flowers for his luxury wedding

[Sebastian Stokes]

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Sebastian Stokes has won a court battle against his grandad(Image: Supplied by Champion News)

A man has won an 850,000 court battle after his 90-year-old grandad sued to reclaim money he had spent on his grandson's home and five-star wedding.

Businessman Robert Stokes is the fourth generation of family decorating supplies firm Stokes Tiles, which he turned into a "substantial company", now operating from a 100,000sq ft base in Sheffield.

He had hoped that his grandson Sebastian, 31, would be the one to take the helm in the coming years and "indulged" him with huge sums, a court heard.

The grandad stumped up over 720,000 towards Sebastian's 1m home and tens of thousands more, including over 10,000 for flowers, for his luxury wedding to wife Olivia, 34, at five-star Grantley Hall, North Yorkshire.

But despite Robert being "guest of honour" at the wedding, the pair ended up locked in a court fight following a family rift, with the businessman then demanding his grandson sell his newly refurbished house in order to return the money, claiming it had been loaned.

Sebastian insisted the money had been given to him as "gifts" by his grandad, with his lawyers blaming "jealousy" from other parts of the family over his "favourite" status for stoking the feud.

The case reached the High Court in Leeds in March, with Judge Richard Carter now dismissing Robert's claim to the cash, having found it was indeed a series of gifts to the grandchild he considered "the future" of the business.

Although he had several grandkids, Sebastian had been Robert's "favourite" and was being groomed to take over the business, which has been in the family since 1895.

Dismissing his claim for repayment, he also said it was "quite possible" that Robert had simply later "revisited his previous indulgence of Sebastian" and tried to get it back.

Stokes Tiles grew out of a decorating supplies firm, which began in 1895 before expanding in the following decades and moving into tile manufacture and supply after Robert took over. It now operates from a 100,000sq ft warehouse in the Rother Valley, near Sheffield, supplying tiles from all over the world, as well as its own.

The court heard the relationship between grandad and grandson had previously been harmonious, with Sebastian giving up a banking career to join the family business. The alleged "loans" at the centre of the dispute totalled about 850,000 and were made between 2020 and 2022, said the judge in his judgement.

More than 720,000 of it went towards Sebastian and Olivia's purchase of their six-bed detached stone-built home, Fernleigh Mount, in the affluent Dore suburb of Sheffield.

Much of the rest went towards their wedding, including 25,000 paid directly to Grantley Hall - a country house and five-star hotel set in 38 acres of grounds in North Yorks - and over 10,000 for flowers.

Robert began his claim after first demanding that Sebastian sell his house, on the basis that it had been their plan together all along. He said the purchase had been an investment between them and that their intention was to "flip" it for a profit, with Robert getting back his money.

In his written evidence to the court, he said the first time he suspected that his grandson wasn't intending to sell was when he learned of the extensive refurbishments being carried out there. "I did not understand why so much money was being spent on the property in circumstances where the plan was to flip it," he said in his witness statement.

"I was extremely distressed and upset. I felt like I had been taken advantage of and deceived by [Sebastian] who had taken advantage of me in a vulnerable state. Above all, I felt foolish for letting myself get drawn into his plans."

Robert was supported in his case by his son Richard - Sebastian's uncle - and Richard's wife Helen, who the judge said both believed that Sebastian had been taking advantage of his grandad.

In her evidence, Helen accused Sebastian and Olivia of living a "lavish lifestyle at Bob's expense," describing their wedding as "clearly a very expensive affair" for someone earning 40,000-a-year in a family business.

But the couple, who were both defendants to the claim, fought back, insisting in court that the house was bought as a "family home" for them and that other money was gifted to help pay for their wedding. Their lawyers suggested that, with their involvement, Richard and Helen were "being vindictive towards Sebastian and jealous that he had been Robert's favourite."

Giving judgment, Judge Carter said: "Sebastian and Olivia both gave unchallenged evidence that Robert was treated as the guest of honour at the wedding - presumably because he had funded it.

"Although Sebastian was questioned about the payments to Grantley Hall, and it was suggested that they were payments for him and Olivia to stay there, not for the wedding, it is clear from the evidence that payments related to the wedding.

"In the absence of any evidence to support the contention that the monies advanced by Robert to pay for Sebastian's wedding were a loan and that Robert was expecting to be repaid, I dismiss his claim for repayment of those sums.

"I am satisfied that at the time that the advances were made, the relationship between Robert and Sebastian was still positive, and that it is more than likely that Robert would have been keen to help pay for the wedding.

"It is reasonable, therefore, to approach the rest of Robert's case with considerable caution. If his claim can seek to recover from his grandson money which I have already found was given to him for his wedding, and for which he has not provided any good contemporaneous evidence, it is quite possible that he has revisited his previous indulgence of Sebastian and chosen to pursue this claim - with or without the encouragement of Richard and Helen.

"There was no agreement that the money would be repayable on demand or on the sale of Fernleigh Mount, nor was there an agreement that Fernleigh Mount was purchased to 'flip' in 2022 and that the profit would then go back to Robert.

"The claimant's claim must therefore be dismissed as I am satisfied that the advance was a gift to Sebastian to purchase a family home for him and his family. I also dismiss the claim for the other payments - they too were gifts by Robert to Sebastian, predominantly to pay for his wedding."

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