Owen & Owen (No. 3)

In the matter of *Owen & Owen (No. 3)*, Ms Owen (the applicant wife) sought to set aside orders made by Registrar Walker-Munro on 13 October 2020, which had executed a document for the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales. Mr Owen was the respondent husband. The application was heard by Gill J in the Family Court of Australia.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the wife was entitled to have the Registrar's orders set aside. This involved considering the application of section 106A of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth), and whether the discretion afforded by this section should be used as a means to effectively re-litigate or attack final property settlement orders, akin to a de facto application under section 79A of the Act.

Gill J reasoned that the discretion under section 106A should not be employed as a mechanism to circumvent the finality of property orders. The court found that the wife's application to set aside the Registrar's orders was not justified. While acknowledging that the wife had made reasonable concessions regarding factual matters, these concessions were insufficient to warrant setting aside the executed document.

Consequently, the court ordered that the wife's application to set aside the orders of Registrar Walker-Munro of 13 October 2020 be dismissed. The wife's Application in a Case filed on 24 November 2020 was also otherwise dismissed.