Ritter & Ritter & Anor

In the Family Court of Australia, Judge Obradovic considered an application by the respondents for the summary dismissal of an Initiating Application filed on 20 August 2018, which sought to set aside or vary final property orders pursuant to section 79A of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth). The parties involved were the applicant, referred to as Ritter, and the respondents, also referred to as Ritter and another party.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the applicant's section 79A application had any real prospect of success, such that it should be permitted to proceed to a final hearing, or whether it was so lacking in merit that it should be summarily dismissed. This required the court to assess the applicant's grounds for seeking to set aside the original orders against the relevant legal principles governing applications for summary dismissal in family law proceedings.

Judge Obradovic applied the principles established in cases such as *Daher v De George* and *R v R*, which outline the stringent test for summary dismissal. The court found that the applicant had failed to demonstrate any arguable case or substantial question to be tried regarding the alleged fraud, duress, or other vitiating factors necessary to justify setting aside the final property orders. Consequently, the court concluded that the application had no reasonable prospect of success and that it was appropriate to dismiss the proceedings summarily to avoid unnecessary costs and delay.

The court ordered that the Initiating Application filed on 20 August 2018 be summarily dismissed and that all outstanding issues related to this application be removed from the list of cases awaiting finalisation.