GAULTON & GAULTON

In the matter of GAULTON & GAULTON, Judge Small of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia was required to determine parenting and property settlement issues between the parties. The parenting dispute concerned an application to extend an injunction preventing the father from consuming alcohol while the children were in his care. The property dispute involved the division of various assets, including monies held in a trust account, interests in several companies and trusts, and superannuation interests, including a sole beneficiary superannuation fund established with a Total and Permanent Disability payment and a jointly held self-managed superannuation fund.

The court was required to consider whether the existing injunction regarding the father's alcohol consumption should be extended and, in relation to property, how to treat the sole beneficiary superannuation fund and the jointly held self-managed superannuation fund. The court also had to determine the division of other assets, including funds held in a lawyer's trust account, shares, bank accounts, and various business entities.

The court ordered that the father be restrained by injunction from consuming alcohol during any time the children are in his care, and for six hours prior to the commencement of such time. In relation to property, the court ordered a specific division of monies held in a lawyer's trust account, the removal of the wife as director and/or shareholder of several entities, and the transfer of certain bank accounts and shares to the wife to be held on trust for the children. Crucially, the court made orders pursuant to section 90MT(1)(a) of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth) for the splitting of the husband's superannuation interest in the Gaulton Superannuation Fund, with the wife entitled to a specified base amount, and also restrained the husband from making binding death benefit nominations that would diminish the value of this split to the wife. The court also provided for the rollover of the wife's superannuation entitlement and appointed a Registrar to sign documents if a party failed to comply with the orders.