Nicholls and Sampson

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NICHOLLS & SAMPSON [2012] FMCAfam 716

FAMILY LAW – Application for child’s change of name – avoidance of risk of confusion in medical records considered.

Flanagan v Handcock (2002) FLC 93-102

Applicant: MR NICHOLLS

Respondent: MS SAMPSON

File Number: PAC 5250 of 2010

Judgment of: Dunkley FM

Hearing date: 14 June 2012

Date of Last Submission: 14 June 2012

Delivered at: Parramatta

Delivered on: 15 June 2012

REPRESENTATION

Counsel for the Applicant: Ms M. De Vere

Solicitors for the Applicant: McPhee Kelshaw

Solicitors for the Respondent: G and D Lawyers

ORDERS

1. The Initiating Application seeking to change the child [X] surname is dismissed.

IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment under the pseudonym Nicholls & Sampson is approved pursuant to s.121(9)(g) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA
AT PARRAMATTA

PAC 5250 of 2010

MR NICHOLLS

Applicant

And

MS SAMPSON

Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

1. This is a single issue case as to by what surname [X] is to be named.  As is usual, single issue cases are not decided in a vacuum.  The relevant background to this case is as follows:

   ·[Date omitted] 1980, the mother was born

   ·[Date omitted] 1980, the father was born

   ·[Date omitted] 1999, [Y], child of the mother’s previous relationship, born

   ·[Date omitted] 2001, [Z], child of the mother’s previous relationship born

   ·May 2007, the parties’ relationship begins

   ·November 2008, the parties start to live together

   ·[Date omitted] 2008, the parties’ child, [X], born

   ·[Date omitted] 2008, [X]’s birth certificate is issued by the New South Wales Births, Deaths & Marriages, noting the informants as Ms Sampson of [address omitted] and Mr Nicholls of [same address omitted] and that certificate indicated that the child’s name was registered as [X] Sampson

   ·14 January 2010, the parties separate

   ·23 May 2012, final parenting orders made by consent, which provide for equal shared parental responsibility, that [X] live with her mother and spend significant and substantial periods of time with the father, with the periods increasing in duration at the time [X] starts school

2. [X] has Cystic Fibrosis. She has had during her lifetime a number of hospital admissions in different hospitals, all as [X] Sampson, and has a number of treating doctors who know her by that name. 

3. In some brief cross-examination of the father, it became apparent that [X] is attending preschool two days a week, registered as [X] Sampson. 

4. There is little evidence that [X] identifies with the surname, Sampson. Although paragraph 43 of the father’s affidavit makes clear [X] knows her mother’s surname is Sampson.  [X] has only known the surname Sampson. 

5. The reasons advanced by each parent regarding their preferred name usage for [X] have more to do with the parents needs or wants than what is best for [X].

6. The mother proposes [X]’s name be changed to [X] Nicholls Sampson by inserting the husband’s surname Nicholls as [X]’s second middle name. 

7. The father proposes a retention of [X]’s first and…