Saitannis v Katsolos [2022] NSWSC 1468

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Saitannis v Katsolos [2022] NSWSC 1468 Hearing dates: 5 – 9 September 2022 Decision date: 27 October 2022 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Robb J Decision: See [102] to [117] below. The parties are to confer and provide agreed short minutes of order or further submissions to the Associate to Robb J in respect of the orders to be made on the basis of the findings in these reasons and as to the costs of the proceedings. Catchwords: ESTOPPEL — proprietary estoppel — encouragement — plaintiff daughter and son-in-law sell home and move in to property of defendant mother and pay sister $100,000 — plaintiffs expend capital renovating property — plaintiffs claim to have done so upon representations by defendant that plaintiffs would become sole owners of property — defendant claims to have allowed plaintiffs to reside in property for indefinite period to raise their children and save money for own home — neither party's case accepted in whole — family arrangement involved counter-assumption that defendant would be allowed to reside in renovated granny flat on property — whether plaintiffs have beneficial interest in property arising from equitable estoppel — whether element of counter-assumption should influence relief granted Cases Cited: Baumgartner v Baumgartner (1987) 164 CLR 137; [1987] HCA 59 Campbell v Campbell [2015] NSWSC 784 Evans v Braddock [2015] NSWSC 249 Evans v Evans [2010] NSWSC 170 Flourentzou v Spink [2019] NSWCA 315 Meshumar v Otmy (2018) 97 NSWLR 615; [2018] NSWSC 125 Muschinski v Dodds (1985) 160 CLR 583; [1985] HCA 78 Perry v Perry [2021] NSWSC 1669 Sidhu v Van Dyke (2014) 251 CLR 505; [2014] HCA 19 Spink v Flourentzou [2019] NSWSC 256 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Helen Saitannis (First Plaintiff) Louis Saitannis (Second Plaintiff) Irene Katsolos (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: C D Wood SC & J R B Pearson (Plaintiffs) R O'Neill (Defendant)