A family feud was temporarily called to a halt when the father was pronounced too ill to attend a tribunal hearing.

Stuart Harker, 31, was suing Tong Garden Centre which is run by his father Ron and brother Anthony for unfair dismissal and breach of contract at a Leeds tribunal yesterday.

But the proceedings were called to a halt when a solicitor representing Ron Harker produced a doctor's note saying that he had been taken too ill to attend the hearing.

The garden centre hit the headlines last September when the family business was gutted by fire.

Ron Harker, the centre's managing director, was hit by a second tragedy only months later when his wife Nita died from cancer.

At the hearing, solicitor Sandy Dillon, representing Ron Harker and Tong Garden Centre, said: "Since Mr Harker's wife died he's been under a tremendous amount of stress and upset and he has been prescribed Valium by his doctor." But solicitor Tony Dunford, representing Stuart Harker, said his client was sceptical whether his father's illness was genuine.

He said: "There is some scepticism about this. Mr Harker was seen at the business premises yesterday behaving quite normally, chatting with staff and going about his business."

Tribunal chairman Tony Simpson said: "This is a most unhappy case.

"It seems to me like a classic family squabble. And like any classic family squabble, the only gainers seem to be the lawyers.

"The family cake is only a certain size and if you start taking slices out for the lawyers then there is not much left."

But Mr Simpson said that without hearing the evidence of Ron Harker the tribunal was in an impossible position.

He said: "At the end of the day the tribunal has got to evaluate the evidence. A medical practitioner has seen fit to append his name to documentation which says that Mr Harker is not fit to attend.

"Without Mr Harker it is like seeing Hamlet without the prince or King Lear without the king." Mr Simpson demanded that a fuller medical explanation for his absence be provided by Ron Harker and adjourned the hearing to a later date.

More than 80 firefighters were called to tackle the blaze which gutted the huge family-run business that had taken 40 years to build up.

The alarm was raised shortly after 8.30pm on September 16 by Anthony Harker, who lived near the massive complex at Tong Lane, Tong Village, Bradford, after he heard fire sensors going off in the main building.

A fire crew from Bramley were first on the scene but had to call for reinforcements as the blaze raged through the 100 by 600-metre building.