Full Court Minute Books

Case P23/2012

Stanford v. Stanford

Case No.

P23/2012

Case Information

Lower Court Judgment

10/07/2012 Family Court of Western Australia (Bryant CJ, May J, Moncrieff J)

[2012] FamCAFC 1

Catchwords

Family law — Property settlement — Property proceedings conducted by case guardians of H (aged 87) and W (aged 89) — Marriage still intact although W's declining health required that the parties be physically separated — Full Court made orders under s 79 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) that required H upon his death or such earlier time as may be determined by his case guardian to pay a judgment sum to W — Order could only be satisfied by H selling matrimonial home where he was still living — Whether Full Court empowered to make a property settlement order under s 79 of the Act.

Constitutional law — Powers of Commonwealth Parliament — Section 51(xxi) — Whether orders made by the Full Court beyond the power conferred on Family Court of Australia in that it was not a matrimonial cause as specified in s 4(1)(ca) of the Act — Whether s 79 of the Act as applied in this case invalid.

Short Particulars

Documents

22/06/2012 Hearing (SLA, Canberra by v/link to Perth)

05/07/2012 Notice of appeal

06/07/2012 Notice of Constitutional Matter (Appellant)

27/07/2012 Written submissions (Appellant)

27/07/2012 Chronology (Appellant)

17/08/2012 Written submissions (Respondent)

24/08/2012 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the State of Western Australia)

28/08/2012 Written submissions (Attorney-General of the Commonwealth)

30/08/2012 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the State of New South Wales)

31/08/2012 Reply

04/09/2012 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra)

15/11/2012 Judgment  (Judgment summary)