In legal battles between family members it's often said that there are rarely any winners. And while we now know that the heavily publicised father versus son case over the disputed ownership of a Lancia Stratos collection has been decided in favour of the father, it has also put what could be a permanent frost on familial relations.
The case hinged on whether Ernst Hrabalek had loaned or given his four Lancia Stratos to his son, Chris Hrabalek, back in 2000. Ernst Hrabalek claimed that he had merely allowed his son to borrow the cars repeatedly over the last 15 years, while Chris Hrabalek believed the cars had been gifted to him.
Much as we'd like to own four Lancia Stratos, it seems a huge shame that such a dispute was allowed to go all the way to the High Court in London, which yesterday decided in favour of Ernst Hrabalek.
"Court cases are always upsetting, but ten times more so when it involves close family members," said Chris Hrabalek, in a statement issued by his solicitors, Goodman Derrick, "I am very disappointed by the outcome of the trial. This dispute between my father and me has been ongoing for over four years and has spanned three countries. The fact that the outcome was favourable to me in Austria and Germany makes this High Court ruling in England particularly hard."
And it might not be over yet - Chris Hrabalek is seeking permission to appeal the court's decision. Begging the question, from an outsider's perspective, of how much longer it will be before the costs of the legal action get close to the very considerable value of the cars in question...
In the meantime, cheer yourself up a bit by watching this again.
