Cirillo & Cirillo

In *Cirillo & Cirillo*, the applicant wife and respondent husband were involved in Family Court proceedings concerning property division. The second and third respondents, who had been appointed as joint and several receivers and managers of certain assets and undertakings of a trust associated with the husband, were parties to these proceedings solely by virtue of their receivership. The husband sought their removal as parties to the Family Court proceedings, contingent upon their ceasing to hold their appointments as receivers and managers, a position supported by the second and third respondents.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the second and third respondents should be removed as parties to the Family Court proceedings upon the termination of their appointments as receivers and managers. The applicant wife opposed this removal, while the respondent husband and the receivers themselves consented to the proposed orders. The court also considered the implications of such a removal on any applications involving the receivers and the allocation of their costs.

Harper J reasoned that if the second and third respondents were no longer receivers and managers, they would have no functional role in the Family Court proceedings. Consequently, the court ordered that upon their retirement or termination from their appointments as receivers and managers of the trust and associated company, they would be removed as parties to the proceedings. This removal was intended to result in the dismissal of any applications against them or to which they were a party. The court also noted that the receivers would not be subject to any costs orders and that their costs and expenses in the proceeding would be costs in the receiverships. The husband provided an undertaking to the court regarding the dealing of trust assets pending a further hearing, and all other costs questions were reserved between the wife and husband.