By Darryl Browne -
Key decisions
- Ward v Ward [2025] NSWSC 1417 (disclosure)
- Jaksic-Repac v Dundjerski [2025] NSWCA 256 (lost will)
- Wheatley v Peek [2025] NSWCA 265 (informal will)
- Meiners (by her next friend the Public Trustee) v Gunn (No 2) [2025] WASC 529 (granny flat arrangement)
- Bahnik v Budimir [2025] NSWSC 1595 (proprietary estoppel)
- Re the will of William Ian Southey [2015] VSC 801 (construction)
- Theocharous v Theocharous [2025] NSWSC 45 (family provision)
Court orders party to authorise Australian Tax Office and Centrelink to provide records
Tim Ward brought proceedings to establish beneficial ownership of real estate registered in the name of his late father. Tim alleged an agreement whereby he would build a house on the deceased’s land at his expense, maintain the real estate and pay expenses relating to it. In return, the father would transfer the real estate to Tim. He pleaded that the agreement was varied over time to include a loan from the father, repayment of the loan, transfer of the real estate by will and care for Tim’s mother. Tim asserted he performed his end of the agreement but his father’s last will did not leave him the real estate.
The interim administrator for the deceased’s estate assumed the defence of Tim’s claim. She filed a motion that the Court direct Tim and his wife to obtain documents from the Australian Taxation Office and Services Australia (including Centrelink). The parties agreed, and the Court accepted, it was not possible for the administrator to obtain the tax and social security records by issue of a subpoena (by reason of section 355-75 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) and section 207 of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth) respectively) but that orders could be made for the relevant party to authorise the relevant entities to do so (Ward v Ward [2025] NSWSC 1417 (Bennett J) at [29]-[46]).
