Representative image of a Kentucky farm landscape. (Image Credits: Pexels)
In an opinion rendered on 5 December 2025, the appeals court ordered the circuit court to place a constructive trust on the property in favour of David Douglas Peterson and his wife and required them to pay Joseph Robert Peterson and his wife $50,000. How the family arranged ownership of the farm According to the court opinion , after finishing secondary school, Doug remained on the property and worked alongside his father until Eugene retired in 2005. This decision was approved by the siblings, Gene, Mark, and Debbie, but not by Joey Before she died in 2021, Barbara added a codicil in 2016, which directed the children to transfer their interests to Doug in exchange for $50,000 each. Doug had paid the specified amount to his three supporting siblings, who signed deeds, but Joey refused it and filed suit in 2022. In May 2024, the Marion Circuit Court ruled for Joey and referred the farm to a master commissioner for sale. The court also considered Doug’s long-standing role in running the farm, managing the agricultural business for at least 20 years without substantial assistance from his siblings.
Because he lived there and managed its agricultural operations, when Eugene died in July 2015, Barbara expressed her wish for Doug to receive the farm. A family farm in Marion County, Kentucky, has remained under the ownership of the brother who operated it after the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s decision for its sale. He then assumed responsibility for the farming operation and paid the property’s expenses, including taxes and insurance. His four siblings, on the other hand, left to pursue their education, careers, and personal endeavours and did not contribute financially. The court record also shows the purpose was to protect the land from potential financial claims and preserve it as a single family property. The majority concluded that allowing Joey alone to compel a sale would conflict with the arrangement under which the children received their interests.
The dispute centred on a 135.458-acre property on Miller Pike that Eugene and Barbara Peterson purchased in 1968. Their five children received equal legal interests in the land in 2012, but the parents intended the arrangement to protect the farm from being sold, divided, or encumbered.