Key decisions
- Jess & Jess (No 3) [2023] FedCFamC1A 2
- Koprivnjak [2023] NSWCA 2
- Crittenden & Crittenden [2022] FedCFamC1F 892
- Reddin & Bickett [2022] FedCFamC1F 910
PROPERTY
Order set aside by consent pursuant to s 79A(1A) – third parties were interested persons entitled to be heard pursuant to s 79A(2)
In Jess & Jess (No 3) [2023] FedCFamC1A 2 (10 January 2023), the Full Court (Alstergren CJ, Aldridge & Austin JJ) refused an application for leave to appeal from orders made in s 79A proceedings filed by a wife where the executor of the husband’s estate, the estate’s trustee in bankruptcy and the wife, agreed to the Court setting aside consent orders made in 2009 via s 79A(1A). The 2009 orders were based on a deed of trust, whereby the husband’s interest in a unit trust was held on trust for the husband’s adult son.
The adult son appealed, arguing that he was denied the right to be heard on the question of whether the order should be set aside.
The Full Court said (from [60]):
‘The applicants contend that they are other persons interested for the purposes of s 79A(2) and … were entitled to be heard on the issue of the s 79 orders being set aside under s 79A(1A). …
[64] The … question … is the extent of the meaning of “other person interested” within s 79A(2).