A RAGS to riches couple have won a £10million court fight with their son-in-law after accusing him of making a “smash and grab” raid for the family fortune.
Natalie Berg built up textiles chain Fabric Land over five decades after starting out in 1971 as a simple market trader.
She and husband Jeremy went on to develop a multimillion-pound business alongside their daughter Marnie, who began working at the company aged 16.
But following Marnie’s death in 2022 aged just 49, a war erupted between her husband Darren and her parents.
Darren tried to sue the couple for ownership of the business, which he values at £10million – claiming he was promised it would be handed to him and Marnie before he agreed to start working for there in 2007.
He claimed his parents-in-law made binding promises about the future of Fabric Land after enduring years of a fractious working relationship with his father-in-law.
Darren also says he worked “long and unsociable hours” on the basis that he would be left in control after they retired at the age of 70.
But Natalie, 73, and Jeremy, 75, said no such promises were ever made and branded the lawsuit a “smash and grab” of their assets.
Judge Nigel Gerald has now dismissed Darren’s claim to ownership of the business as “unreal” – handing victory to his parents-in-law.
Central London County Court heard Fabric Land has online and high street outlets as well as supplying the theatrical departments of several well known cruise companies, including Carnival Cruise Liners and Cunard.
Their daughter Marnie joined the family firm at the age of 16 and went on to work with her parents for the next 30 years.
Marnie tragically took her own life in May 2022 after her mental and physical health declined during the Covid lockdown.
Her husband Darren also worked at the family firm between 2007 and 2022 as an executive manager after selling his interest in the business he was working in.
But he claims he only did this because his parents-in-law made binding promises about the future of Fabric Land while sitting by a pool on a holiday in Vietnam over 20 years ago.
Darren told the court this included a vow that he and Marnie would eventually take over the business after Natalie and Jeremy retired.
He says he worked “long and unsociable hours” and he carried on his heavy workload “during annual leave, over holidays and through ill-health…tolerating a verbally abusive working environment from 2018/19”.
Darren also claims he was promised ownership of two warehouses in Hampshire, which the couple own but lease to the company.
His lawyer James Saunders said: “The family, including Natalie and Jeremy, holidayed in Vietnam in December 2003, at which time Marnie and Darren had been together for eight years and married for 18 months.
“During this holiday, it is Darren’s case that the family discussed the future of the company and that assurances/promises were made to Darren that, if he were to join the business, he and Marnie would be the owners and controllers of that business when Natalie and Jeremy ultimately retired.
“That position was maintained, and further like assurances made, during the subsequent years and Darren ultimately decided to join the company in April 2007.”
Mr Saunders labelled the couple’s “total denial of any promises or assurances” as “extreme” and suggested the couple may be motivated by deep-seated hostility towards their son-in-law because they both “blame Darren for their daughter’s death.”
But the couple’s barrister, Pepin Aslett, claimed no such promises were ever made and branded the lawsuit little more than a calculated raid on the assets they have built up over years of toil.
He also dismissed Darren’s claim that Fabric Land could be worth up to £10million as “pie in the sky”.
Mr Aslett further told the court he never had a pivotal role in the company and pointed out that “at no time was he a shareholder or a director”.
Darren formally resigned in June 2022 and, at the time of her tragic death, Marnie was “estranged” from him and instructing divorce lawyers, it was said.
Judge Gerald in his ruling said the Bergs had “tended to deny” the contributions that Darren had made to the business.
But he said Darren was never a director, which is “slightly at odds with Mr Hill saying that he was being groomed to take over.”
The judge added: “I’m unable to accept that either Natalie or Jeremy made any promises or assurances to Mr Hill or Marnie back in Vietnam in 2004 to the effect that they would become joint owners on their retirement.”
