Can my friend get his Southern California ranch back without spending a boatload of cash?

The ranch has been in the family for over 40 years. My friend inherited the ranch and he and his brother both inherited the family business when their father died in the late 70's. He signed the ranch over to his mother before he went to jail in 1998. They made a verbal agreement, witnessed by the family attorney, that she would sign it back over to him when he got out of jail. She died before he was released from prison, and his younger brother was named executor of her estate in her will. The will had been drawn up in 1983 and was very vague about the ranch; in it, the mother declared that she bequeathed all of her possessions to the younger son, specifically stating that her older son, my friend, "already had everything he had coming to him," meaning the ranch, but not specifically clarifying that she was talking about the ranch. The younger brother took advantage of this loophole, put the ranch in his own name and sold it out from under his older brother, literally leaving him homeless. Can he get his ranch back without having to buy it back from the new homeowner, would he be entitled to any damages, and would escrow insurance cover the new homeowner's expenses?