Taylor v Goddard [2009] NSWSC 649

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Taylor v Goddard [2009] NSWSC 649

HEARING DATE(S) : 23-24 June 2009

JUDGMENT DATE : 25 June 2009

JURISDICTION : Equity

JUDGMENT OF : White J

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 25 June 2009

DECISION : Orders in accordance with the short minutes of order as amended where indicated by his Honour, initialled and dated today by His Honour and placed with the papers.

CATCHWORDS : FAMILY LAW - de facto relationships - adjustment of property interests – assessment of significance of financial and non-financial contributions – whether adjustive order should be made – no question of principle

LEGISLATION CITED : Property (Relationships) Act 1984 (NSW) Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW)

CATEGORY : Principal judgment

Watson v Foxman (1995) 49 NSWLR 315 Proudman v Dickason [2008] NSWSC 681 CASES CITED : Dunstan v Rickwood (No 2) [2007] NSWCA 266; (2007) Fam LR 491 Baker v Towle [2008] NSWCA 73; (2008) 39 Fam LR 323 Parker v McNair (1990) DFC 76

Vicky Anne Taylor PARTIES : v Kevin Goddard

FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 6059/06

COUNSEL : Plaintiff: B Ralston Defendant: E Cohen

SOLICITORS : Plaintiff: Thomas Adams Solicitors Defendant: Farah Lawyers

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES EQUITY DIVISION

WHITE J

Thursday, 25 June 2009

6059/06 Vicky Anne Taylor v Kevin Goddard JUDGMENT 1 HIS HONOUR: This is an application under s 20 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1984 (NSW). The parties were in a de facto relationship from February 1981 to December 2004. There is one child of the relationship, a daughter born in September 1987. When the parties' relationship began in February 1981 they were both divorced. Each had a child or children from a previous marriage. 2 In February 1981 the plaintiff was 27. She had a daughter, born in May 1977. She and her former husband were the registered proprietors of a property at Berith Street, Auburn in which she lived with her daughter. That property was unencumbered and was then worth about $55,000. As part of a family law settlement with her former husband, the plaintiff acquired his interest in the property. She acquired that interest in about 1983 and paid her former husband $12,000 or possibly $12,500 for it. 3 In February 1981 the defendant was 35. He had three children by his former marriage. He owned a property at Talbot Street, Riverwood, then worth about $60,000. That property was occupied by his former wife and his children. He gave oral evidence that as part of the arrangement with his former wife he declared a trust of the property in favour of his children and agreed to his wife being able to occupy the property, apparently indefinitely. In February 1981 he was living in a mobile home on that property.