By and -

Key decisions

  • Henley & Bestari [2024] FedCFamC1A 12
  • Kai & Min [2024] FedCFamC1A 6
  • Kearney & McMaster [2024] FedCFamC1A 2
  • Carnegie v Nelson-Carnegie [2023] NSWSC 1379

PROCEDURE

Reasonable apprehension of bias where Court had rejected proposed consent orders that included balance sheet and agreed percentage

In Henley & Bestari [2024] FedCFamC1A 12 (21 February 2024) the Full Court (McClelland DCJ, Tree & Williams JJ) allowed a husband’s appeal against the dismissal of an application for an order that Gill J recuse himself.

Final parenting orders were made by consent on the first day of trial. Further discussions led to agreed property adjustment terms being handed up which were rejected as, while there was an agreed percentage, the terms required valuations to be carried out and future steps.

The husband sought orders that Gill J recuse himself from any further involvement where the Court had been exposed to the agreed percentage. The Court dismissed that application.

The Full Court turned to the High Court authority, Ebner v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy [2000] HCA 63, and considered the common law ‘apprehension of bias’ principle that applies to judicial disqualification: (from [25]):

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