Stone & Stone

[2023] FedCFamC1F 518

FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA

(DIVISION 1)

Stone & Stone [2023] FedCFamC1F 518

File number(s):

BRC 1645 of 2011

Judgment of:

BAUMANN J

Date of judgment:

30 June 2023

Catchwords:

FAMILY LAW – CHILDREN – Best interests decision – Where the children are 16 and 17 at present – Where the mother seeks additional parenting orders be made – Application dismissed

Legislation:

Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) ss 60CC, 68B

Cases cited:

Rice & Asplund (1979) FLC 90-725

Stone & Stone [2018] FamCA 876

Division:

Division 1 First Instance

Number of paragraphs:

34

Date of last submission/s:

26 October 2022

Date of hearing:

6 September 2022

Place:

Brisbane

Solicitor for the Applicant:

Anglin Lawyers Pty Ltd

Solicitor for the Respondent:

Litigant in person

Solicitor for the Independent Children's Lawyer:

TLG Law

Counsel for the Independent Children's Lawyer:

Ms K Carmody

ORDERS

BRC 1645 of 2011

FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA (DIVISION 1)

BETWEEN:

MS STONE

Applicant

AND:

MR STONE

Respondent

INDEPENDENT CHILDREN'S LAWYER

ORDER MADE BY:	BAUMANN J
DATE OF ORDER:	30 JUNE 2023

THE COURT ORDERS:

1.That the mother’s Application for further parenting orders be dismissed.

2.That the Independent Children’s Lawyer be discharged.

Note:   The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court’s records.

Note: This copy of the Court’s Reasons for judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 10.14(b) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 10.13 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth).

Section 121 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to publish proceedings that identify persons, associated persons, or witnesses involved in family law proceedings.

IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment by this Court under the pseudonym Stone & Stone has been approved pursuant to s 121(9)(g) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

BAUMANN J:

1. On 22 January 2015; Forrest J made final parenting Orders in respect of two boys, B and C which had the effect of them living with their father and spending no prescribed time with their mother, who had previously been their primary carer.  An appeal against the decision was dismissed.

2. The primary, but not only, reason for the trial Judge making such orders was that based on expert psychiatrist evidence, the mother and her parents presented as an unacceptable risk of long term emotional harm to the boys.

3. Suffice to say, the mother found the decision and subsequent loss of any physical time with her sons very difficult to accept.  The first attempts by the mother to re-litigate the final parenting Orders resulted in my decision made 31 October 2018 when the mother’s Application was dismissed, applying the principles of Rice & Asplund (1979) FLC 90-725, but some small variations to the final parenting Orders sought by the father…