By Darryl Browne -
Key decisions
- Deak v Estate of the Late Carolina Nacinovich and Ermanno Giurina [2024] VSC 710 (administration of estate)
- In the matter of Gainer Associates Pty Limited [2024] NSWSC 1138, Williams v Williams [2023] QSC 90, Application by Gainer Associates Pty Ltd [2024] NSWSC 1437, Petith v New South Wales Trustee & Guardian; Bone v New South Wales Trustee & Guardian [2024] NSWSC 1503 and Petith v New South Wales Trustee and Guardian; Bone v New South Wales Trustee and Guardian (No 2) [2024] NSWSC 1662 (superannuation, resulting trust, essential validity and costs)
- Re Ramos [2025] VSC 19 (best practice)
Completion of administration of estate
Carolina Nacinovich died in 2002. By her last will (for which probate was granted to Ermanno Giurina about seven months after the testator’s death), her house was left to Giurina. By 2024 it had yet to be transferred by Giurina into his own name. A creditor wanted the Sherriff to sell the property to recover a debt owed by Giurina. An initial question in Deak v Estate of the Late Carolina Nacinovich and Ermanno Giurina [2024] VSC 710 (Steffensen AsJ) was whether the estate’s administration had been completed.
The Court explained:
‘Administration of an estate is the performance by the executor of their role to execute the instructions of the testator as to the disposition of their estate’ (at [75]).
Accordingly, an estate will be administered when the executorial duties have been completed. An executor’s duties chiefly involve getting in the assets of the testator, paying the deceased’s debts, paying testamentary and funeral expenses, paying the legacies given by the will, distributing the assets in accordance with the will and producing accounts (at [90]). However, the law may treat the administration as coming to an end for each asset of the estate, once that asset has been administered in accordance with the testator’s directions:
