A son has lost a Supreme Court inheritance battle against his sister over a $7.5 million home in Sydney's Coogee.

Robert Bruce claimed his mother, Agnes Bruce, had promised him the property at 46 Arcadia Street for almost 40 years. The home, bought by his parents in 1977 for $55,500, was valued at approximately $7.5 million when Agnes died in April 2024 at the age of 102.

Robert alleged that his mother was unduly influenced and lacked capacity when she altered her will in 2015, dividing the property equally between him and his sister, Paula. His mother's 2010 will had left the home solely to him.

Justice Kate Williams dismissed Robert's claims, stating there was insufficient evidence of Agnes making such promises or that Paula had manipulated her mother. The court found that Agnes knew and approved the contents of the 2015 will, reflecting her true intentions. Evidence suggested Agnes decided to alter her will after concluding the property's significant value increase had upset the fair balance between her two children.

One witness recalled Agnes asserting, "No one will tell me what to do with my will."

The dispute highlighted a deep-seated family animosity. Paula Bruce, a solicitor, testified that she was deeply hurt by the 2010 will favoring Robert, describing it as "grossly unfair" and leading to an 18-month estrangement from her mother. The court also heard of a prior dispute regarding another Coogee property, 9 Berwick Street, sold in 2001 for $2.4 million, which had fractured the siblings' relationship for nearly two decades.

Justice Williams rejected Robert's account of the earlier property sale, finding Paula had become the sole legal owner in 1993. The judge cautioned that recollections of conversations from decades prior may not always be reliable, stating, "All too often what is actually remembered is little more than an impression from which plausible details are then, again often subconsciously, constructed."

The court ordered Robert to pay 70 percent of Paula's legal costs, deeming large portions of his case to be based on an "inherently implausible" interpretation of past family arrangements. Robert had previously turned down a settlement offer that would have provided him with an additional $200,000 from his sister's share of the estate, which the judge noted would have resulted in a more favorable outcome than his trial loss.