A DOCTOR and his former lover have squared up in court in a battle to decide who owns East Lancashire care homes worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Dr Joseph Paramundayil, who runs a surgery in Church, bought the residential homes in Accrington, Great Harwood and Clayton-le-Moors during the 1990s along with his then partner Catherine Joseph.

But when the couple split in 1992 after a 10-year relationship Dr Joseph launched a legal battle to claim all the properties were his.

Mrs Joseph, a registered nurse who ran the homes for her partner, claimed an equal share in the properties and the business. The nine-year legal fight came to an end yesterday when Mr Justice Haworth ruled that Mrs Joseph should be entitled to an eqaul share in the value of three of the homes, thought to be worth about £400,000.

However Judge Haworth ruled that Mrs Joseph was not entitled to a share of the profits from the business as she had not been a partner but an employee who was paid a weekly wage.

He said: "Both parties treated the business as belonging to Dr Joseph and to nobody else, but it is clear that both were to have an interest in the properties. It must be that the properties were in trust for both Mrs Joseph and Dr Joseph in equal share. Dr Joseph and Catherine Joseph met while they were both working at Burnley General Hospital. After he trained as a GP in Brighton the couple set up in business running residential nursing homes, paid for primarily with Dr Joseph's cash, as well as his surgery in Church. After their first home, Willowbank in Barrowford was closed in 1989 the couple moved to Accrington and then on to Clayton-le-Moors in 1990. They moved to Gamblecrest in Great Harwood in 1990 and the relationship broke up two years later.

Following the ruling at Liverpool County County, Mrs Joseph, who lives in Owen Street, Accrington, said: "This is a great moral victory for me and one I have fought nine years for. This hasn't been about the money, I don't care if I don't see a penny from those houses, it has been about fighting for a principle."

Her solicitor, Theresa Fenton, of Manchester-based firm Birchall Blackburn, added: "We are very pleased with the result of the judgement. This justifies the decision made back in 1992 in connection with the running of the homes and Mrs Joseph's claim to have equal share in the houses she shared with Dr Joseph."

The case will now go before an audit to decide exactly how the value of the homes will be divided. The homes, Gamblecrest in Whalley Road, Great Harwood, Kingswood in Clayton-le-Moors and Highmount in Whalley Road, Accrington, may have to be sold off.

Dr Joseph will be allowed to keep his surgery in Dill Hall Lane, Church as the court decided he was the sole owner of that property. Mrs Joseph will have to surrender half the value of her Owen Street house, valued at about £32, 000, as this was bought during the relationship.

Outside the court Dr Joseph, who trained as a medical doctor in India before coming to Lancashire to work at Burnley General Hospital before becoming a GP, said: "I am quite pleased with the way things have gone. I am pleased the judge decided there was no partnership and the total value of the houses is not so much that I will lose out." A final decision on the fate of the properties is likely to be made before a district judge in the next six months.