ON 29 MAY 2014, the Report of the Inquiry into the conviction of David Harold Eastman for the murder of Colin Stanley Winchester was delivered to the Registrar of the ACT Supreme Court.
The report concluded that Mr Eastman suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice because he did not receive a fair trial according to the law and was not given a fair chance of acquittal. The report recommends that Mr Eastman’s murder conviction should be quashed.
Justice Hammerschlag delivered a judgment providing opinion, advice or direction under s63(1) of the Trustee Act 1925 with respect to trusts established by orders of Justice Ward on 7 May 2010 concerning Carol Judy Jennifer Sekers and others.
The Federal Magistrate had determined a property split of 50:50. The husband appealed, seeking a 70:30 split, on the grounds that the Federal Magistrate had failed to take into account his “special contributions” in the form of special skills and entrepreneurial flair.
The Court dismissed the appeal, holding that the Federal Magistrate was not required to take into account special contributions.
The court affirmed the state of the law with regards to the supposed doctrine of special contributions by quoting O’Ryan J in D & D [2005] FamCA 1462 at [271]:
“…the notion of special contribution has all been a terrible mistake … what I have to do is identify and assess the contributions made by each of the parties without any presumption of entitlement” (emphasis in original). The task is to make findings as to the nature, form, characteristics and duration of each and all of the contributions made by each of the parties referenced to s 79(4), without adjectival qualification[17]. Thereafter the court must undertake the exquisitely difficult task of assessing how those respective contributions, often of differing types (a task which his Honour referred to below as a comparison of apples and carrots (at [42])), find expression in qualitative assessments.[18] In the context of a case such as the present one, the duration of the marriage[19] has an important influence upon what evidence is relevant in respect of contributions. There is no need to conduct a minute forensic examination of the details of contributions over many years with each party extolling their own efforts and attempting to diminish the other’s.”
The parents of a deceased schoolboy and a company related to the parents were awarded damages against the boy’s school arising from admitted negligence causing the boy’s drowning on a school hike in 1999.
The court found that the parents suffered mental harm which resolved by June 2001.
The parents were awarded damages which included an amount of $75,000 for their costs associated with the coronial inquest.
The father was awarded $202,486, the mother was awarded $138,887 and both were awarded $95,00 jointly. The associated company was awarded $56,000 with respect to a claim for loss of services (per quod servitium amisit) arising from the inability of the parents to work whilst suffering from the mental harm.
The amount awarded to the company was significantly less than that which the company had sought.
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