Mankiewicz & Anor and Swallow & Anor

In the matter of *Mankiewicz & Anor and Swallow & Anor*, the applicants, maternal great grandparents, sought parenting orders for time with their great grandchildren. The respondent parents opposed this application. The court, on its own motion, considered whether the application should be dismissed under section 102QB(2)(a) of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth).

The central legal issue before the court was whether the applicants' application for parenting orders was vexatious and an abuse of process, warranting dismissal and a future prohibition on further proceedings. This arose in circumstances where the maternal grandfather, with whom the applicants were found to be acting in concert, had previously been declared a vexatious litigant due to his history of frequently instituting and conducting vexatious proceedings in Australian courts and tribunals.

Justice Watts reasoned that the maternal great grandparents' application was instituted and pursued without any reasonable grounds and that its continuation would constitute an abuse of the court's process. Applying the principles of vexatious litigation and abuse of process, the court found that the applicants were acting in concert with the grandfather, who had a history of vexatious litigation. Consequently, the court dismissed the applicants' application for final parenting orders.

In addition to dismissing the application, the court made a further order pursuant to section 102QB(2)(b) of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth), prohibiting the applicants, Mr and Ms Mankiewicz, from instituting any future parenting proceedings in respect to the children under the Act in any court having jurisdiction.