WENTWORTH v WENTWORTH EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF THE LATE G.N. WENTWORTH [1995] NSWCA 544

WENTWORTH v WENTWORTH EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF THE LATE G.N. WENTWORTH

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY JA 24 November 1995

[1995] NSWCA 544

Priestley JA. I will state briefly what is happening and that is, following conclusion of the appeals set down for yesterday and today and their reservation, the matter of what was to happen to the stay that had been granted of execution of the certificate of taxation of 5 May 1995, which stay had been granted on condition that the defendant lodged security to the extent of $100,000 by 5 pm today, had to be dealt with.

Mr Lindsay, for the defendant, offered, and I put the matter in terms of substance without going into detail, security to the extent of $100,000. Miss Wentworth sought security in the sum of $277,000, that amount being what, in her submission, represented, first, an amount legally due by order of the court and, second, approximating if not smaller than the amount which would emerge as the net amount due to her when all costs orders arising out of litigation between herself and her brother have finally been turned into terms of money and finally ascertained.

She also sought to put evidence before the court, being of a documentary nature, which she had obtained from the response to a subpoenaby the company Southlands Limited and some which she, I think, had obtained from an answer to a notice to produce served upon the defendant.

She submitted that the notice to produce had not been properly answered and that there were attempts on foot by the defendant, which had been going on for some time, to move assets out of the way of her eventual reach when, as she sees it, she will be shown to have a balance of costs outstanding to her.

On an earlier occasion, while the matter of the application for special leave to appeal to the High Court in the s 8 proceedings was pending, I had fixed the amount of the security required for the stay to continue at the figure of $100,000. No doubt that is why that figure was offered today, through Mr Lindsay on behalf of the defendant, in order that the stay continue.