Just in Case Law

CASE: Dowling v Irvine [2005] NSWSC 531 When Verdun Irvine died in 1992, he left behind a large farming property in Toogong NSW known as Lowery. Verdun's wife Enid was granted the right to live on the farm for the rest of her life. She did so, with her son Maxwell, and they continued the farming operations together. When Enid died in 2002, the farm was supposed to be sold and the proceeds divi...

CASE: Anaya & Anaya [2019] FCCA 1048 After 46 years of marriage, Mr & Mrs Anaya decided to call it quits. They divorced when they were both in their 80s. What caused the separation may be considered to be a simple financial transaction or the straw that broke the camel's back. There was a lot to consider when deciding how to divide the matrimonial assets, including: Whether to include...

CASE: McFarlane v McFarlane [2021] VSC 197 In 2015, Judith McFarlane signed over her house to her son Mark McFarlane in exchange for "natural love and affection". The very next year, Judith moved into aged care and had no money to pay for her nursing home accommodation or care fees. Transferring the house to Mark not only took away her main asset, but also caused her to lose her pension....

CASE: Estate El Chami; Habib v El Chami [2016] NSWSC 1208 For most of Elias El Chami's life he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was institutionalised several times. His brother Salim had supported him for much of his life, but in the last 10 years they had no contact due to Elias' irrational behaviour. When Elias was 92 years old he made his final Will leaving his entire estate to...

CASE: The State of Tasmania v Jassy Anglin and Michael Anglin (13 April 2015); Janet Lois Mackozdi (2018) TASCD 274 WARNING: Disturbing content In the middle of winter, on 23 July 2010, Janet Lois Mackozdi was left to spend the night in an uninsulated shipping container. At the time, she was 77 years old and weighed only 40kg, she was frail and could not walk, she had dementia and had diminished m...

CASE: Estate of Shirley Gardner Bernengo v Leaney [2019] NSWSC 1324 Shirley Gardner Benengo died on 19 June 2017 without a Will, leaving an estate worth more than $3.5 million and a legal battle to see who would claim it. There was no doubt that the person who had been closest to her was Juan Jose Bernengo, also known as Marco. Marco had been Shirley's son-in-law for almost 20 years, up until...

WARNING: Disturbing content; discussion of suicide. CASE: Re Estate of Carrigan [2018] QSC 206 In 2017 a husband died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Just before his death, he had left a voice message on his friend's phone stating that he wanted his life insurance to be paid to his children ($3 million each) and the rest of his estate to his wife. He then made a voice recording on a mini...

CASE: The Public Trustee of Queensland v The Public Trustee of Queensland & Ors [2014] QSC 47 WARNING: Disturbing content of suicide and death. Francis Ward, who went by the name Frank, died in June 2009 as a result of a drug overdose. He left an estate worth about $140,000. Two years before his death, Frank had made a homemade Will which appointed his friend Merin Nielsen as his executor and...

CASE: Gill v Garrett [2020] NSWSC 795; Gill v Garrett (No 2) [2020] NSWSC 1473 Dr Bill Garrett was a brilliant medical scientist, who in the 1960s was one of the small team of Australians who developed ultrasound for monitoring pregnancies. In 1996 an unlikely friendship formed between the good doctor and a man 30 years his junior, Jason Gill. They met at a pub in Paddington where Jason was the li...

What happens when there are co-owners to land, one owner wants to sell and the other doesn't? A co-owner can apply for an order under section 66G of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) in which trustees are appointed to take charge of the property and sell it. In this episode we look at some examples. Van Oosterum v Van Oosterum [2011] NSWSC 663 Farming property owned 50% by Edward and 50% by his...

CASE: Alan John Hyland as executor of the estate of the late John Walter Popham Luscombe v Healy [2013] NSWSC 1513 Herbert Walter Luscombe died in January 2009 at the age of 98. He left an estate worth $3.4 million that he had intended to leave to his closest relative, his nephew John Luscombe. It was a surprise to everyone when Laura Healy came forward to claim that she and Herbert had been frien...

CASE: Able Australia Services v Yammas [2010] VSC 237 Beryl Rose Simmons (‘the deceased’) died on 19 February 2007. She was 96 years old. About a year earlier, on 23 March 2006, she had signed her last Will. The last Will made some gifts to her nephew David, three grand-nieces and two charities. It left the residue of her estate (worth about $400,000) to her friend John Yammas. David was suspiciou...

CASE: Adams v R [2019] NSWCCA 295 Edna Pearson was 77 years old and suffering from vascular dementia when she met 34-year-old Victoria Adams. Victoria quickly became Edna's cleaner. She and her family inserted themselves into Edna’s life, providing assistance until Edna was completely dependent upon them. But theirs was not a fortuitous and altruistic friendship. Victoria had identified Edna a...

Frank v Angell [2024] NSWSC 158 Max Frederick Willis had a keen interest in the development of the Solomon Islands and in providing opportunities for people from the Solomon Islands to come to Australia to obtain tertiary qualifications. From 2015 until his death in 2021, Sharon Frank and her family lived in Max's house while she studied a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Arts at Western Sydn...

Willmott v McCourt [2002] WASC 210 Cecil Ray French died at Murray District Hospital in Pinjarra on 5 August 1999. He was 87 years old. During the 3 days he was in hospital with a chest infection, he was confused and falling in and out of consciousness. In one of his barely conscious moments, a friend who was visiting him helped him lift his arm and directed his hand to sign his last Will. After C...

Law Society of New South Wales v Hocking [2017] NSWCATOD 19 From July 2009 to January 2014, Bruce Percy Hocking was working as a solicitor. He was also the director of DC Legal Pty Ltd. During that time, the firm mishandled trust money, used client money to pay the firm's bills, charged excessive fees, and misappropriated client money. In March 2014, the NSW applied to have Hocking removed fro...

Lee v R [2022] NSWDC 178 For 8 months in 2021 Zhin Zin Lee was practicing medicine when she was not qualified to do so. She had failed her final university subjects, but still accepted an intern position with Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital. Her deception was eventually discovered and Zhin Zin Lee was charged with the offence of not being registered as a health practitioner while claiming to be qualif...

Carr v Homersham [2018] NSWCA 65 The case of Banks v Goodfellow (1870) LR 5 QB 547 set the golden standard for assessing testamentary capacity - the capacity to execute a Will. Very briefly, the test is: 1. Does the testator understand the act and the effects of making a Will? 2. Does the testator understand the extent of the property of which they are disposing? 3. Does the testator comprehend an...

DPP v O'Neill [2015] VSC 25; DPP v O'Neill [2015] VSCA 325 WARNING: Disturbing content In 2013, Michael Anthony O'Neill pleaded guilty to murdering his partner of 16 years, Stuart Rattle. The relationship was marked with disputes and a power imbalance to culminated in the tragic events of 4 December 2013 in which Michael hit Stuart over the head with a frying pan and strangled him with...

Re Rattle [2018] VSC 249 In the last episode, we looked at the trial of Michael O'Neill who pleaded guilty to murdering his partner Stuart Rattle in 2013. In this episode, we look at the complex legal proceedings that followed to determine who would inherit Stuart's $1million estate. The proceedings involved: an informal Will the left Stuart's estate to the partner who killed him, Mich...

Downie v Langham [2017] NSWSC 113 Just a short episode on an attorney called to account for their suspicious transactions. Dianne Langham was the attorney for her aunt Gwen. After Gwen's death, her son Rodney noticed suspicious transactions on her bank account. On investigation, he came to believe that Dianne had misappropriated $120,000 of her aunt Gwen's money.

Estate El Chami; Habib v El Chami [2016] NSWSC 1208 Elias Yacoub El Chami died on 23 February 2014, at the age of 92 years. He left an estate with a value of about $917,000. Elias had made two Wills during his lifetime. His first Will made in 1992 left his entire estate to his brother Salim. His second and final Will made in 2014 left his entire estate to his neighbour Habib. This Will was made on...

Comcare v PVYW [2013] HCA 41 Are you entitled to compensation if you are injured on a work trip? Are you entitled to compensation if the injury occurs in your hotel room after the work is done for the day? Are you entitled to compensation if you are injured while having sex in the hotel room? Those are the questions that were answered in the case we are covering this episode.

Pilkvist & Coburn (Deceased) [2019] FamCA 635 There are two interesting parts to this matter. In the first part, covered in our previous episode, we looked at the family law application in which Ms Pilkvist claimed to have been in a de facto relationship with Mr Coburn for 5 years. She was seeking a property division that would see her receive a 35% share of Mr Coburn's $11million estate....

Pilkvist & Coburn (Deceased) [2019] FamCA 635 There are two interesting parts to this matter. First, there is the family law application from a supposed de facto partner, seeking a division of property. Second, there is a criticism and reprimand of the solicitor and barrister who represented the applicant. In this episode, we look at the family law application in which Ms Pilkvist claimed to h...