The Sword of Damocles now hangs over their head with High Court ordering liquidation of their family company owning farmland near Hot Water Beach in the Coromandel following more than two decades of hostile bickering between brothers Michael and Errol Hamilton.
A dispute over how the family farm might be divided between the two is now spiralling into a strong possibility the farm will be sold, ending three generations of family ownership.
Known locally as ‘Ponderosa,’ the 490 hectare farm was inherited by the two brothers, held now though their shareholdings in a family company: WA Hamilton Ltd.
The size of their respective ownership stakes is disputed, with legal action needed to reinstate Michael as a director after Errol used a supposed shareholding majority to remove his brother as director in late 2024.
The High Court was told Hamilton Ltd is now a landholding company only. Michael alone has been paying rates due, with no contribution from Errol.
Each brother farms separate blocks of the company’s land.
Their decades-long dispute centres on plans to subdivide the land, giving each brother separate title over part of the farm.
Michael says equal division should be by value, with survey lines drawn accordingly. Errol demands equal division by area.
Evidence was given of an earlier 2006 High Court hearing in which the trial judge travelled to the farm and met the brothers together with their lawyers, valuers and surveyors.
A farmgate agreement was hammered out, with notes taken by the judge placed on the court record.
This record stated agreement by the brothers that their land be divided ‘by equal partition.’
Errol says this means division by area.
At their latest High Court hearing, now twenty years on, Errol stated this interpretation was confirmed by a private conversation he had with the judge at the farmgate.
Lawyers who have attended site visits by judges would be surprised that there was any opportunity for a ‘private conversation.’
Michael questioned the veracity of any such conversation, given that the judge’s notes state a need for valuations; needed to ensure equality of value, Michael says.
With the two now again back in the High Court, Associate Judge Sussock ruled putting Hamilton Ltd into liquidation was the most ‘just and equitable’ way to deal with the brothers’ ongoing dispute.
The two have been fighting for years.
Neither has the financial ability to buy out the other.
Ongoing disagreement about what was supposedly agreed twenty years ago means further mediation is unlikely to be successful, Michael said.
With their company now in liquidation, control passes to court-appointed liquidators.
They have power to negotiate a final settlement between the two. Failing that, liquidators can sell the farm, splitting net proceeds between the two brothers.
Hamilton v. WA Hamilton Ltd – High Court (27.02.26)
26.090