By Darryl Browne -
Key decisions
- Re Estate of Hagendorfer (Injunction) [2024] VSC 482, Re Cassar [2022] VSC 126, Cassar v Cassar (Preliminary questions) [2024] VSC 502 and Cassar v Cassar (Costs of preliminary questions) [2024] VSC 537 (wrongful distribution)
- Succession Act 2023 (SA)
- Powers of Attorney Regulation 2024, Australian Human Rights Commission report on enduring powers of attorney, new Commonwealth Bank of Australia procedures, and the Evaluation of the National Plan to Respond to the Abuse of Older Australians (powers of attorney)
- Erem v Moussa [2024] NSWSC 641 (testamentary and mental capacity)
- Bones (as Executor of estate of late Milford Lewis Bones), Bones v Armstrong [2024] TASSC 52 (revocation of grant)
Injunction to prevent beneficiary disposing of distributed estate
Claudio Hagendorfer made no testamentary provision for one of her four children, Tanya. Tanya brought proceedings for family provision within the allowed time. At the mediation of the claim, Tanya was advised the estate had been distributed before she commenced her proceedings. Tanya sought an injunction against the beneficiaries, preventing them from disposing of their homes or increasing the extent of borrowings secured by those homes until the determination of the proceeding or further order of the Court.
The Court observed that, if the distribution of the estate was made prematurely, the executor would be liable to make good any loss that the claimant suffered. Gorton J, in Re Estate of Hagendorfer (Injunction) [2024] VSC 482, stated:
