Samuels and Shaw and Ors (Adjournment application)

In the matter of *Samuels and Shaw and Ors*, Justice Boland of the Family Court of Australia was required to determine an application for an adjournment. The proceedings concerned a property settlement and a rehearing of a review application, which had previously been before Justice Cohen and remitted from the Full Court. The wife was an undischarged bankrupt, and her trustee in bankruptcy had declined to intervene in these proceedings, although they had intervened in separate proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Several respondents had not taken any steps in the proceedings for several years.

The court was required to consider the appropriate procedural steps for the ongoing litigation, including the allocation of the case to a judge, the filing and service of amended applications, affidavits, financial statements, and a balance sheet by both parties. The court also needed to address the potential for applications by respondents to be removed as parties and the implications of the wife's bankruptcy on the proceedings.

Justice Boland ordered that the wife's application for settlement of property and rehearing be referred for allocation to a judge other than Justice Cohen. The court then set out a detailed timetable for the filing and service of various documents by both the wife and the husband, including amended applications, evidence in chief, witness affidavits, financial statements, and balance sheets. The court also directed that copies of all filed documents be provided to the wife's trustee in bankruptcy. Furthermore, the court provided a mechanism for any respondent seeking to be removed as a party to file an application, which could be dealt with as a discrete issue by the trial judge.