Meadis and Meadis & Ors

FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA

MEADIS & MEADIS AND ORS [2020] FamCA 543

FAMILY LAW – CHILDREN – interim parenting orders – practice and procedure – applications by Applicant father and Second and Third Respondent paternal grandparents for review of Senior Registrar’s decision – where father is imprisoned for serious assault of Respondent mother – family violence perpetrated upon the mother – safety of the mother – assessment of risk to the three children of the relationship – issue of mother’s mental health and parenting capacity – where paternal grandparents had significant earlier involvement in the children’s lives – where father is seeking for the children to visit him in prison – paternal grandparents no longer prepared to facilitate taking children to prison – father seeking telephone communication – applications of father and paternal grandparents dismissed – costs order.

Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) ss 60CA, 60CC, 62G(5), 69ZX(4), 117(2A)
Family Law Rules 2004 (Cth) Pt 18.2, r 18.10(2)

APPLICANT: Mr Meadis

FIRST RESPONDENT: Ms Meadis

SECOND RESPONDENT: Mr G Meadis

THIRD RESPONDENT: Ms H Meadis

INDEPENDENT CHILDREN’S LAWYER: Joliman Lawyers

FILE NUMBER: MLC 11834 of 2016

DATE DELIVERED: 16 July 2020

PLACE DELIVERED: Melbourne

PLACE HEARD: Melbourne

JUDGMENT OF: Hartnett J

HEARING DATE: 26 June 2020

REPRESENTATION

THE APPLICANT: In person by video link

COUNSEL FOR THE RESPONDENT: Mr Nicholson

SOLICITOR FOR THE RESPONDENT: Harris Lieberman Solicitors

THE SECOND RESPONDENT: In person

THE THIRD RESPONDENT: In person

COUNSEL FOR THE INDEPENDENT CHILDREN’S LAWYER: Mr McLeod

SOLICITOR FOR THE INDEPENDENT CHILDREN’S LAWYER: Joliman Lawyers

Orders

1. The applications in a case filed by the Applicant on 13 November 2019 and 21 November 2019 are dismissed.

2. The application in a case filed by the Second and Third Respondents on 6 March 2020 is dismissed.

3. The orders made by Senior Registrar Fitzgibbon on 21 October 2019 and 13 November 2019 are affirmed.

Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry of the order in the Court’s records.

IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment by this Court under the pseudonym Meadis & Meadis has been approved by the Chief Justice pursuant to s 121(9)(g) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

Note: This copy of the Court’s Reasons for Judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 17.02A(b) of the Family Law Rules 2004 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 17.02 Family Law Rules 2004 (Cth).

FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT MELBOURNE

FILE NUMBER: MLC 11834 of 2016

Mr Meadis

Applicant

And

Ms Meadis

First Respondent

And

Mr G Meadis

Second Respondent

And

Ms H Meadis

Third Respondent

And

Independent Children’s Lawyer

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

Preliminary  

1. Before the Court are applications for review of orders made by Senior Registrar Fitzgibbon on 21 October 2019 and 13 November 2019.  A true copy of the order made 21 October 2019 is attached to these reasons.  The application for review of the earlier orders was made by the Applicant father (‘the…