A ruling on the $10 million estate of Elizabeth Bay auto-electrician Tibby "Rose" Revell, who died in 2014, aged 90, has set a horrid precedent for their disappointed offspring.

On July 7, Justice Michael Pembroke dismissed a $4.5 million estate claim by Tibby's 60-year-old son Gary Martin Revell, declaring that "even the most loving parent is entitled to cut loose the shackles of the past".

Revell's original inheritance of $1.5 million – a generous sum for mere mortals - was "adequate" in the circumstances, M'Lud declared.

The inability of the unemployed, "mildly delusional" Newington College Old Boy to make more of the "privileged, happy and affluent start in life" afforded to him by his self-made multimillionaire father did not endear him to His Honour.

"The father's story is one of survival, hardship and determination. The son's life, on the other hand, seems like a modern urban fiasco – for which no one else is to blame and certainly not his father."

Holocaust survivor Tibby lavished gifts on his son, including a car, overseas holiday and an interest-free loan of $35,000 to help house him in Wahroonga. Revell also reaped the spoils of an annual $4000 clothing allowance, plus $1000 in cash each Christmas and birthday.

But Tibby eventually became exasperated by his "feckless" son's financial troubles, aversion to hard work and demands for money, the court heard.

"There comes a time when the problems of the son cease to be those of the father," Justice Pembroke said, upholding Tibby's bestowal of the bulk of his estate to third wife Tova "Ziggy" Lambert-Revell​, whom he married in 1992.

Tibby gave legacies of $1.5 million each to his son and daughter Sonya. But his Honour questioned whether Tibby had a "moral obligation to leave anything to his son" – a remark that is sure to send shivers down the spine of any descendants waiting for dad to drop off the perch.