Property – Husband’s inheritances represented 43.5% of $2.7m pool – Long marriage – Contributions assessed 70/30 in his favour – Adjusted for wife’s limited employment opportunities In Dinsmore [2012] FamCA 798 (18 September 2012) a 28 year marriage that included 4 years of pre-marital cohabitation produced two (now adult) children and net assets of $2.7 […]
Children – Father’s hearsay account of housekeeper’s statements as to mother’s alcohol use admitted but given little weight as that evidence was not adduced from that potential witness In Mabart & Haselden [2012] FamCA 793 (18 September 2012) the father’s affidavit contained statements alleged to have been made by the mother’s housekeeper as to excessive […]
Property – Equitable estoppel – Declaration that farm held upon trust for father as life tenant and for son in remainder In Hampton & Farley and Ors [2013] FamCA 213 (5 April 2013) counsel for the parties’ son submitted that the de facto husband and wife should be estopped from denying that he had been […]
Child with Asperger’s syndrome allowed to travel to US provided $8,000 cash bond paid Justice Watts said at paras 47-51: “In Line & Line (1997) FLC 92-729 the Full Court discussed the purpose of bonds. Their Honours said: ‘The first of those matters to which the trial Judge should have regard is the purpose of […]
Children – Maternal grandmother’s application for parenting orders dismissed due to her lack of insight into children’s needs – Grandparent cases reviewed In Danes & Anor [2013] FMCAfam 281 (28 March 2013) the maternal grandmother’s applied for an order that the children live with her and that she and the child’s parents have joint parental […]
In Firmer & Britton [2012] FamCA 576 (23 July 2012) Justice Monteith made a finding at the end of a five day final hearing that the parties’ net pool of assets was worth $4m and included the notional add back of a $2.1m property which the husband had transferred into a superannuation fund in the […]
In Slater & Light [2013] FamCAFC 4 (5 February 2013) the father appealed to the Full Court against Federal Magistrate Coates order for indefinite supervision of his time with the parties’ three children. The father, who was being treated for Asperger’s Syndrome, was alleged by the mother to pose an unacceptable risk of emotional harm […]
In Chapa [2012] FMCAfam 1420 (18 December 2012) the mother unilaterally relocated from Sydney to Adelaide with two young children, alleging abuse of the children by the father and family violence on his part. The father alleged that the mother was mentally unstable (producing a suicide note written by her (paras 39-43)) and was guilty […]
Relocation from Launceston to Melbourne allowed In Abrahams & Rathbone [2013] FMCAfam 1 (9 January 2013) Roberts FM allowed the mother to relocate with a child born in 2008 from Launceston to Melbourne where her new partner worked. The parties were described as “two very competent and committed parents” (para 35). The mother offered significant […]
In Gissing & Sheffield [2012] FMCAfam 1111 (18 December 2012) O’Sullivan FM described (para 2) as “unusual” the relationship between the 48 year old applicant who alleged a 17 year relationship with the respondent, a 65 year old business proprietor, that began as a business association and became a personal one. After considering substantial evidence […]
