Chow v Chow [2016] NSWSC 908

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Chow v Chow [2016] NSWSC 908 Hearing dates: 19 February 2016 and 26 April 2016 Decision date: 01 July 2016 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Robb J Decision: The parties are directed to bring in short minutes of order to implement these reasons for judgment, as well as to formulate directions for the future conduct of the proceedings (in the latter case having regard to the requirements discussed in pars 129 and 130 concerning the purpose of the application for the passing of accounts and the identification of the real issues between the parties) Catchwords: SUCCESSION – format of estate accounts for the purpose of passing by a registrar – consideration of usual format – suitability of accounts prepared in accordance with modern accounting standards – consideration of difficulties involved in registrar being required to pass estate accounts prepared in a modern format – no decision in principle

PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – review of registrar's decision pursuant to UCPR r 49.19 – passing of estate accounts – defendants challenged registrar's decision to reject their accounts on the ground that that they are not in the usual format, as the format required has not been prescribed as being mandatory – whether the registrar gave adequate reasons for his decision – defendants did not attempt to challenge the plaintiffs' expert evidence – registrar adopted plaintiff's expert evidence – held registrar's reasoning was sufficient in the circumstances – whether the court should permit accounts to be prepared in modern accounting formats for the purpose of the passing of estate accounts, in lieu of the well-established format for estate accounts –no evidence offered by the defendants to demonstrate that the passing of accounts could have been done as conveniently as if the accounts had been prepared in the usual format – held consequences of changing the format not sufficiently clear – held uncertainties relating to the passing of accounts in the present form outweigh the actual costs of reformatting the accounts into the usual format – in all circumstances, registrar's decision not disturbed – further directions for future conduct of proceedings required Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) Probate and Administration Act 1898 (NSW) Supreme Court Rules 1970 (NSW) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) Cases Cited: In the Will of White (1908) 8 SR (NSW) 582 Noble Earth Technologies Pty Ltd v Hampic Pty Ltd trading as Cyndan Chemicals [2012] NSWSC 935 Re Angas [1906] SALR 140 Estate of Falco; Falco v Lambert (No 3) [2015] NSWSC 1343 Re Estate of Gowing; Application for Executor's Commission [2014] NSWSC 247; (2014) 11 ASTLR 128 Re Estate of Orre (unreported, Supreme Court of New South Wales, 19 December 1991: BC9101324) Texts Cited: Geddes, Rowland and Studdert; Wills, Probate and Administration Law in New South Wales (3 ed) Heydon and Leeming; Jacobs' Law of Trusts in Australia (7 ed) Hastings and Weir; Probate Law & Practice (2 ed) Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Selwyn Sai-Him Chow (first plaintiff) Jacqueline Wai Ying Chow (second plaintiff) Evan Sai-Yiu Chow (third plaintiff) Chow Kwok Chi (fourth plaintiff)