There are some cases so finely balanced on the finer nuances of law that a judgment could genuinely swing either way.

Then there are those that could not.

Malika Benmusa this week wins the unfortunate accolade of twice falling into the latter category.

President of the Family Division Sir James Munby presided over another application by Benmusa to unseal the will of the late Princess Margaret.

The first application, published last month, was duly dispatched by Munby with the sign off: ‘In short, her application is hopelessly defective.’

He goes one better this time describing the second claim as a ‘farrago of delusional nonsense’.

In her latest application Benmusa claims to be last child of the late Princess. Benmusa includes a copy of a death certificate of a woman who was born in 1904 and died in 1997 and who is allegedly her ‘late Aunt.’

‘I am the heir to the throne of England,’ Benmusa adds defiantly.

But Munby was not impressed: ‘Quite obviously a woman born in 1904 could not have been, as the applicant asserts, her mother’s elder sister if, as she also asserts, her mother was HRH Princess Margaret. I have no hesitation in concluding that I should strike out the applicant’s claim.’

Topics