Gull and Gull (No 2)

In *Gull and Gull (No 2)*, the wife failed to comply with a court order requiring her to bring funds from Indian banks to Australia. This non-compliance resulted in the husband unnecessarily incurring mortgage payments on his Australian property. The matter came before Cronin J.

The court was required to determine whether the wife had contravened the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) and, if so, to consider the appropriate orders for variation of previous property settlement orders and costs. Specifically, the court considered the application of section 79A(1)(c) of the Act, which allows for the alteration of property orders where a party has failed to comply with an order.

Cronin J found that the wife had contravened the order by failing to repatriate the funds from India. The court reasoned that this failure directly caused the husband to incur additional mortgage expenses. Consequently, the court varied the existing property orders to direct that a sum of $111,435.00 be paid from the wife's cash entitlement from the repatriated funds to the husband. This amount comprised $50,000 pursuant to section 79A(1)(c) for the contravention, $60,000 for costs, and the discharge of two prior costs orders.

Further orders were made for $22,000 to be set aside from the repatriated funds to cover potential taxation liabilities, with any excess to be divided 65 per cent to the wife and 35 per cent to the husband. The court also discharged previous orders and permitted the child, R, to travel internationally, requesting the Australian Federal Police remove R from the Airport Watch List. All other extant applications were dismissed.