An elderly bachelor disliked the brother who is claiming he did not know what he was doing when he signed away his £2 million fortune, London's High Court was told yesterday.

Dr Joseph McClintock, who practiced in Chingford, Essex, left everything to his nephew's wife, Vivien Calderwood, under a will which he made in January 1999.

It is now being challenged by his brother Eric McClintock, aged 79, originally from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, but now living in Eastbourne, Sussex.

Mr McClintock claims his brother always planned to die intestate, and would never have disinherited the rest of his family, who will share the fortune if Judge George Bompas QC finds in his favour.

But yesterday Sheila Holliday, who worked at the St Ives residential home, in Chingford - where Dr McClintock signed the will - claimed he did not like his younger brother.

"It was just the impression I got," said Mrs Holliday, who was a witness to two wills Dr McClintock made within three days of each other in January 1999.

Both were almost identical, with retired doctor Mrs Calderwood, of Handsworth Wood Road, Birmingham, the sole beneficiary.

Mrs Holliday added: "I was given to understand that when Mr McClintock visited they had lunch, and Dr McClintock didn't want to have lunch with him."

The allegation was denied by Mr McClintock, who insisted he was close to his brother.

Mrs Holliday, who witnessed the wills, also claimed that Dr McClintock was well aware of what he was doing when he signed the disputed will and knew and approved of its contents.

It is Mr McClintock's case that his brother, who never married and died at the age of 84, did not have "testamentary capacity" to make a valid will.

St Ives owner Catherine Deary, who also witnessed the wills, supported Mrs Holliday's evidence and described Dr McClintock as "always alert".

Notes taken by staff at the care home around the time the wills were signed state that Dr McClintock was "very confused", but Mrs Deary said that was not the case when it actually came to putting pen to paper.

Earlier the court heard Dr McClintock, who came from a large Irish family, had made his money through property and share dealing.

Described as an "astute old devil" he died of pneumonia after declining rapidly both mentally and physically in the late 1990s.

The case, in which Dr Mc Clintock ' s estate of £1,999,535.20 is in dispute, continues.