EJK & TSL

The Full Court of the Family Court of Australia, comprising Bryant CJ, Faulks DCJ, and Boland J, considered an appeal by the appellant mother against orders made by Dessau J. The dispute involved two main aspects: an appeal against the refusal to grant a stay of orders requiring a child's return to Korea, and an appeal against the refusal to abridge time and expedite the hearing of the mother's application for parenting orders. While the stay appeal was initially successful, the substantive appeal concerning the parenting orders application became moot due to the application being listed for hearing in the ordinary course before the substantive appeal was heard.

The primary legal issue before the Full Court was whether the substantive appeal, concerning the refusal to abridge time and expedite the parenting orders application, should be dismissed given that the application had since been listed for hearing. A secondary issue related to the costs of the proceedings, including the appropriateness of granting costs certificates for the stay appeal and the allocation of costs for the substantive appeal. The court also considered whether to continue a stay on the original orders pending the hearing of the parenting orders application.

The Court reasoned that the appeal against the refusal to abridge time and expedite the parenting orders application was now moot because the application had been listed for hearing in the natural course. Consequently, the appeal was dismissed. The Court granted costs certificates to both the appellant mother and the respondent father in relation to the stay appeal, acknowledging the successful outcome of the stay appeal. However, for the substantive appeal, the Court ordered the appellant mother to pay the respondent father's costs from 19 September 2006, on the basis that the appeal should have been withdrawn once the mootness became apparent. A limited stay of the original orders was granted until midnight on 21 September 2006 to ensure the matter could be expeditiously brought before a single judge.