I don't think they had to vie for her hand, just agree to marry her. Since this only happened with widows who had no children, this was probably the girl your brother just married, and she probably was still a girl, in her teens. Now, Orthodox women still preform the cursing and the spitting and the hitting with the shoe thing, but it's purely symbolic. No one expects their husband's brother to marry them. But they are Orthodox Jews, and the ceremony must be followed.

If a man suddenly found himself married to two of his brother's widows who are best buds, I can see family conflict and side taking happen real fast.