Reagan and Sadowski (Child support)

This matter concerned an appeal by Reagan against a decision of the Child Support Registrar concerning child support payments. The dispute centred on whether certain payments made by Reagan to third parties, specifically for the benefit of the child, were intended by both parents to be in lieu of child support payable under the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* (Cth). The appeal was heard by Magistrate Y Webb.

The primary legal issue before the court was to determine whether the payments made by Reagan to third parties constituted payments made in lieu of child support. This required an assessment of the intention of both parents at the time these payments were made, to ascertain if there was a mutual understanding that these payments would discharge Reagan's child support obligations.

Magistrate Webb affirmed the decision of the Child Support Registrar. The court's reasoning focused on the necessity of establishing a clear intention by both parents that the third-party payments were to be accepted as satisfaction of the child support liability. Without such a mutual intention, the payments could not be considered as being made in lieu of child support. The court found that the evidence did not demonstrate this requisite mutual intention.