Late judge Robert Hulme’s family in bitter estate fight

The estranged son of a deceased Supreme Court judge has contested his multi-million dollar will, accusing his mother of falsifying the value of a boat and his father of playing favourites.

Deceased NSW Supreme Court judge Robert Hulme. Picture: Belinda Munns

The estranged son of a deceased Supreme Court judge has contested his multimillion-dollar will, ­accusing his elderly mother of falsifying the valuation of their family boat, and his father of playing favourites.

David Hulme entered legal proceedings with his eldest ­brother, Mark Hulme, and ­mother Suzette Hulme, nearly two years ago, believing they were “uncooperative and unfit executors” of the will his father, NSW Supreme Court judge Robert Hulme, left when he died in 2020.

The lengthy dispute has been heard in the court Robert Hulme presided over for 20 years.

In a series of emails sent to the court, David questioned whether his father had the mental capacity to write a will, due to a longstanding struggle with leukaemia.

“The family was well aware that Robert’s medical history includes that he was being treated over several years prior to (writing the will) for what was then diagnosed as chronic lymphocytic leukaemia,” David wrote.

“This condition was later re-diagnosed as a different type of auto-immune disease, albeit with similar effects on body and brain function.”

Robert Hulme.

However, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favour of ­Suzette and Mark Hulme due to the weakness of David’s arguments and his inability to front court hearings, forcing him to pay his family members’ costs for the legal procedure.

While the exact dollar figure of the will is unknown, Robert Hulme would have been earning about $300,000 a year during his tenure as a Supreme Court judge.

The estate consisted of his home in Kirribilli on Sydney’s lower north shore, two boats (a Nereus MTR Cruiser and a ­Yamaha RV), a car and shares in companies including Perenti, BlueScope and BHP. Law books, clothing, personal effects and various tools were also included.

David Hulme was highly critical of Robert’s decision to appoint Mark executor over himself and another brother, Braddon, ­accusing his late father of unfairly favouring his firstborn. Mark and Braddon had a lifelong “rivalry”, David said, making the decision to “place one in a long-term position of effective authority over the other simply ludicrous”.

“Mark and Braddon do not get along … They were born 13 months apart, and the simple truth is they have largely never seen eye to eye, but have always been each others (sic) greatest competitor,” he said.

Robert Hulme with wife Suzette.

“That is, either physically, or psychologically, and often both. Perhaps akin to one another’s personal nemesis. This includes a fundamental inability to be (or ­appear) empathetic to each other, including common (sometimes daily) vicious physical fighting throughout their teenage years.

“I can only suggest that as the eldest child of his generation, my father was inclined to view his eldest child through somewhat rose-coloured glasses … likely aided by Mark’s predominantly steady life circumstances, such as his consistent career employment, or at least, relative to Braddon’s.”

David Hulme said he felt ­unfairly characterised by Mark as “egocentric” in front of the courts, claiming his brother had intentionally made him look bad due to the “strained relationship” he had with him and his ex-wife.

Sir Alan Hulme.

He also accused his mother of undervaluing the family’s boat at $1.25m, when it should have been about $1.3m, which he said indicated an “outright negligence on behalf of the executors”. He claimed she had several health ­issues, including significant periods of hospitalisation, which made her unfit to execute the will.

Robert Hulme, son of Australia’s last-ever postmaster-general, Sir Alan Hulme, was a well-respected judge, holding court from 1993 until retirement in 2012.

In 2015, having returned as an acting judge, he made headlines for harsh criticism of the DPP, after being forced to vacate the murder trial of gangland figure Mohammed Hamzy.

“I have now been or acted as a judge of this court for over 20 years and I never cease to be surprised at the extent of incompetence or … inefficiency within the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions,” he said.