Rodgers & Rodgers (No 2)

The case of Rodgers & Rodgers (No 2) was heard in the Family Court of Australia, with the appeal being heard by the Full Court. The dispute between the parties, the husband and wife, centred on the property settlement following their divorce. The husband appealed the trial judge’s decision, arguing that the judge had failed to deduct a calculation of the total future taxation payable by the parties’ corporation from the property settlement. The husband contended that the treatment of the taxation liability should be governed by what is just and equitable between the parties, and that the trial judge's failure to include the calculated taxation liability constituted an error.

The legal issues before the court included whether the trial judge erred in not deducting the calculated taxation liability from the property settlement and whether the trial judge’s decision was plainly unjust or plainly wrong. The court held that the failure to include the taxation liability was not, in itself, an error, as it was within the trial judge's discretion to treat the liability as a matter to be considered under section 79(4)(e) of the Family Law Act. However, the court found that the trial judge had failed to consider relevant considerations in making this assessment, and that the exercise of the trial judge's discretion was erroneous. The court concluded that the appeal was allowed and the matter should be re-determined by the Full Court.

The Full Court allowed the appeal and varied the orders made by the trial judge. The husband was held to be entitled to 55 per cent of the net assets and the wife to 45 per cent. Each party was ordered to bear their own costs of and incidental to the appeal. Additionally, the husband was granted a costs certificate in respect of his costs of and incidental to the appeal, and the wife was granted a costs certificate in respect of her costs of and incidental to the appeal. The court’s decision was that the husband should pay the wife $532,701, with the wife to pay the husband $116,057 within 14 days.