Hadjidemetriou and Lescouriou

This matter concerned orders made by Dessau J in the Family Court of Australia, determining the financial and property settlement between the parties, Mr. Hadjidemetriou and Ms. Lescouriou. The dispute involved the division of various assets, including real estate and superannuation, and the provision of spousal maintenance.

The court was required to determine the appropriate orders for capitalised spousal maintenance and the division of property, including specific real estate interests. The orders also addressed the withdrawal of caveats, indemnities for liabilities associated with various properties, and the consequences of a failure to make a required payment by a specified date. Furthermore, the court considered the parties' entitlements to other property and superannuation benefits.

The court ordered the husband to pay the wife a sum of $75,750 by way of capitalised spousal maintenance. In relation to property, the wife was ordered to pay the husband $142,600. Contemporaneously with this payment, the husband was to transfer his interest in a Queensland property to the wife, and both parties were to withdraw any caveats lodged over each other's property. The wife was to indemnify the husband against liabilities concerning properties in Melbourne and Queensland, while the husband was to indemnify the wife for liabilities relating to a Victorian property. Provisions were also made for the wife's sole occupation of the Melbourne property pending payment, and for the sale of that property should the wife fail to make the full payment by the due date, with the proceeds to be applied first to sale costs, then to discharge any mortgage, then to satisfy any outstanding payment to the husband with interest, and finally the balance to the wife. Each party was to retain other property in their name and forgo claims to the other's superannuation.