HJC [2018] NSWCATGD 7

NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: HJC [2018] NSWCATGD 7 Hearing dates: 29 January 2018 Date of orders: 29 January 2018 Decision date: 29 January 2018 Jurisdiction: Guardianship Division Before: A Britton, Principal Member W E Blaxland, Senior Member (Professional) J Koussa, General Member (Community) Decision: The application for appointment of a guardian for Mr HJC is dismissed after hearing. Catchwords: GUARDIANSHIP – application for guardianship order where enduring guardians appointed – no evidence that enduring guardians not acting in subject person's best interests – when appointment of enduring guardian comes into effect – whether enduring guardian is required to make decisions in accordance with directions given by appointor Legislation Cited: Guardianship Act 1987 (NSW), ss 3, 3(2), 4, 4(a), 4(d), 6, 6A(1)(a), 6D(1), 6D(2)(a), 6E(1)(a), 6J(1), 7, 14, 16(2) Category: Principal judgment Parties: 001: Guardianship Application

Mr HJC (the person) Mr JZC (applicant, enduring guardian) Mr QAC (enduring guardian) Public Guardian Representation: Nil File Number(s): NCAT 2017/00377332 Publication restriction: Decisions of the Guardianship Division of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal have been anonymised to remove any information that may identify any person involved in the Tribunal's proceedings (s 65, Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW)).

REASONS FOR DECISION 1. In October 2017, eighty-nine-year-old Mr HJC moved to live in residential aged care in Northwest Sydney after a short admission to a public hospital. Prior to that admission, Mr HJC had been living independently in regional NSW. 2. In December 2017, one of Mr HJC's sons, Mr JZC, made an application to the Guardianship Division of the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) seeking a guardianship order in respect of his father (the Application). Mr JZC wrote that the reason he made the Application was because of his father's insistence that he return to live in a suburb in regional NSW. That suburb is a three and half hour drive from Northwest Sydney. 3. In May 2014, Mr HJC executed an instrument appointing his sons, Mr JZC and Mr QAC to act as his enduring guardians, jointly and severally. Under that instrument, Mr HJC conferred on his sons a number of functions, which included the power to make decision about where he should live, in the event he became a "person in need of a guardian". Because Mr HJC made that appointment together with the absence of any evidence to suggest that the appointed guardians were not acting in their Mr HJC's best interests, we decided not to exercise the power to make a guardianship order. 4. In these reasons all reference to "HJC" are to Mr HJC.