Sophia Rogers acted for the successful appellants in Re Brunt (deceased), an appeal concerning duplicate wills which did not emerge until over 10 years after the deceased’s death. The respondent is seeking to propound the wills as the valid wills of the deceased. The appellants allege that the wills are forged and/or not duly executed and/or that the deceased did not know and approve the contents of the wills.

At trial, a Master declared for the validity of the wills. On appeal, following the appellants’ submissions, Mr Justice Green set aside the first instance decision and ordered a retrial on the grounds that the master had erred in his approach to the assessment of the evidence at trial.

Sophia was instructed by Rachel Leech at Birkett Long.