Rabbi Joseph Halpern's family settled his estate before a Beth Din in Zurich, then fought in London over whether Jewish law governed the deal

Rabbi Joseph Halpern died on 2 July 1999 and his wife Frieda on 6 August 2000. They had five sons and a daughter, Esther. Their 1989 wills named three sons, David, Mordechai and Jacob, as executors and trustees. Probate values were about £309,945 for Joseph and £210,000 for Frieda. In 1998 Joseph signed a Jewish will with a shtar chatzi zachar acknowledging a £10 million debt to Esther, to be forgiven if the family honoured her share. Another son, Israel, and Israel's son Samuel disputed the inheritance. In January 2002 the family signed arbitration deeds in Zurich before an ad hoc Beth Din of three dayanim. On 11 March 2003 Mordechai and Samuel signed a compromise drafted in Hebrew: Israel would receive assets worth £2.29 million plus £95,000 in cash. Clause 4 required all documents to be returned or destroyed, and the claimants and the dayanim destroyed theirs. On 26 March 2003 the dayanim gave the compromise the force of a judgment. On 24 September 2003 Mordechai declared it void. Israel and Samuel sued in London to enforce it. On 24 March 2006 Mr Justice Christopher Clarke held that Jewish law cannot be the governing law of a contract in an English court. On 3 April 2007 the Court of Appeal held that English law governed, that Jewish law could help interpret the deal, and that the brothers' claim of duress must go to trial. It sent the papers to the tax authority. No final trial result was found^†.