By Darryl Browne -
Key decisions
- Liosatos v Liosatos [2025] NSWSC 44, Collins v Hawkes [2025] NSWSC 316 and Pethers v Pethers [2025] NSWSC 389 (family provision)
- Case 9883913 (concerning Australian Meat Industry Superannuation Pty Ltd), Case 988428 (concerning LGSS Pty Ltd), Lynn v Australian Financial Complaints Authority [2025] FCA 175, Case 12-00-951716 (concerning Australian Retirement Trust Pty Ltd), Case 12-00-1018831 (concerning Telstra Super Pty Ltd), Case 12-00-1012176 (concerning Avanteos Investments Ltd) and Case 12-00-1021516 (concerning Host-Plus Pty Ltd) (superannuation)
Family provision claims: service of notice on eligible persons
Section 61 of the Succession Act 2006 (NSW) provides that, in determining an application for a family provision order, the court may disregard the interests of any other person by or in respect of whom an application for a family provision order may be made (other than a beneficiary of the deceased person’s estate) but who has not made an application, if:
‘(a) notice of the application, and of the Court’s power to disregard the interests, is served on the person concerned, in the manner and form prescribed by the regulations or rules of court, or
(b) the Court determines that service of any such notice is unnecessary, unreasonable or impracticable in the circumstances of the case’.
In Liosatos v Liosatos [2025] NSWSC 44 (‘Liosatos’) (Meek J), the Court identified a large degree of uncertainty surrounding aspects of this section, including:
- what notification requirements arise in family provision cases;
- what steps may permissibly be taken to search for and locate a relevant person required to be notified;
- what, in any given case, amounts to sufficient attempt at notification; and
- the meaning and nature of the ‘unnecessary, unreasonable or impracticable’ terms which enliven the power to disregard interests of persons who ought to be notified of the claim in the proceedings, but have not been notified, and what guides the exercise of such power.
