TWO feuding brothers have been ordered by a court to share the proceeds of the sale of their late mother's house in Billericay.
London's High Court was told that Nick Schrader, 62, had such "hatred" for his brother Bill, two years his junior, that he unlawfully tricked his mother into leaving him her £350,000 home near Billericay.
However, Mr Justice Mann invalidated the 2006 will of his mum, Jessica Schrader, who died in January 2008 aged 88.
Nick Schrader was ordered to pay the estimated £110,000 legal costs of the four-day court battle which ended on March 11.
The judge ruled that the "violent" and "irrational" elder brother had used "undue influence" on his mother to get her to make the 2006 will.
Under the terms of that will, he kept the home he shared with her, Southend Farm House, near Billericay, to himself.
Yet the judge found in favour of an earlier will from 1990 which shared the estate equally between the brothers.
In his ruling against Nick Schrader, the judge said Bill Schrader may have been at times "cavalier" but accepted his evidence that inequality of treatment between the brothers by their parents "did not exist".
The judge said: "Nick's personality is an important factor.
"He was a forceful man with a forceful physical presence.
"Nick's keenly felt view that he had not been treated equally with his brother is an important point.
"He would be more inclined to try to even things up."
The judge added: "He had clear views about his entitlement to his inheritance."
Now the farmhouse will have to be sold and the proceeds split equally between the brothers.