Australia, June 30 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 30:

1. Mark Madigan died on 5 February 2023 at the age of 86. He was survived by his de facto spouse, Donna Woods, with whom he had been in a committed and long-standing domestic relationship for over 35 years.

2. The deceased was also survived by six children. The oldest two are Samantha (born 1968) and Antony (born 1970) who are the children of the deceased's first marriage, which was to Gail Chancellor. That marriage lasted from some time in the 1960s until the early 1970s.

3. The next oldest is Marcus (born 1972) who is the child of a brief relationship which the deceased had with Patricia Burridge in the early 1970s.

4. The next oldest is Dan (born 1982). He is the child of the deceased's brief marriage to Julie Wellings which lasted from some time in 1982 until some time in 1983.

5. The youngest two are Bridget (born 1992) and Mary (born 1994), who are the children of the deceased's relationship with Donna.

6. At the time of his death, the deceased and Donna owned a house in Gerringong which had been their home since the early 1990s. It was originally purchased by the deceased but had been in their joint names since 2002. The deceased also had savings in a self-managed superannuation fund established by him and Donna (the SMSF). At a point in time about two years prior to his death, the balance allocated to him in that fund was about $540,000. He had executed a binding death benefit nomination in favour of Donna in respect of his portion of the SMSF in October 2014. In June 2020, he also executed a request to the trustees of the SMSF that his pension be made reversionary to Donna (the automatic reversionary pension nomination). He withdrew part of his balance in the two years prior to his death which he gave to Donna, who reinvested it in her own account in the SMSF. In the result, Donna has come to own the Gerringong house, which is probably worth about $1,425,000, and - one way or another - has received the balance of the deceased's superannuation, meaning that the estate had little of any value.

7. The deceased's last will was made on 17 November 2011. It appointed Donna and the deceased's long-term solicitor, Colin Love, as executors. The will provided that each of the deceased's six children should receive a gift of $20,000 and that the balance of the estate should go to Donna, if she survived him, or to Bridget and Mary equally, if she did not.

8. The estate did not have sufficient assets to make any of the gifts for which the will provided. Because the value of the estate's assets was so low, neither executor sought a grant of probate. Nonetheless, although she was not bound to do so, Donna paid $20,000 to each of the deceased's six children from her own resources.

9. Marcus and Dan now seek orders for further provision under s 59 of the Succession Act 2006 (NSW). They have each commenced proceedings joining both executors named in the will, but only Donna has taken an active part in the proceedings. The proceedings were heard concurrently, with evidence in one being evidence in the other.

10. Marcus and Dan seek orders for further provision in the sum of $200,000 each. They say that the Court should make orders designating the deceased's superannuation (including the amount which went to her automatically as well as the amounts which he withdrew and gave to her) and the deceased's interest in the Gerringong home as notional estate in order to meet their claims and their costs of pursuing them. The plaintiffs' costs up to the conclusion of the hearing, calculated on an indemnity basis, have been approximately $135,650 for Dan and $114,048 for Marcus. Donna's costs are estimated to be about $206,000 in total.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1971e36a51b38d9a0f0ceb09)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.