Kukula v The Public Trustee

The applicant, Ms Kukula, sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Court of Appeal. The dispute concerned the applicant's claim against the estate of the deceased, the Public Trustee being the respondent in its capacity as executor. The applicant alleged that a contract had been formed between herself and the deceased in 1965, based on conversations where the deceased proposed marriage, conditional on a five-year waiting period for his divorce to mature. The terms of this proposed contract included the applicant selling her property, the deceased transferring title of his property into joint names, and both parties sharing equally in their business ventures and inheritance.

The legal issues before the High Court revolved around whether the findings of fact made by the trial judge, particularly concerning the conversations and the subsequent de facto relationship, gave rise to a right to relief for the applicant. Specifically, the applicant argued that the Court of Appeal had erred in its consideration of the work she performed on the deceased's property. This work, undertaken over many years, was allegedly performed in the expectation that the deceased's promises would be fulfilled, including the eventual marriage and joint ownership of property. A critical fact was that the deceased had been divorced since 1971 but had concealed this from the applicant until shortly before his death, thereby preventing the proposed marriage from occurring.

The applicant contended that the deceased's deceit in concealing his divorce meant the contract was not brought to fruition through no fault of her own. She argued that the work she performed was done in reliance on the deceased's promises and that the Court of Appeal had wrongly disregarded this crucial element. The applicant submitted that the facts presented a case where she was entitled to relief, raising questions about the extent of the High Court's jurisdiction to grant such relief based on the established facts.