WDD v SMI

[2007] QSC 283

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

WDD v SMI [2007] QSC 283

PARTIES:

WDD
(applicant)
v
SMI
(respondent)

FILE NO:

BS2536 of 2007

DIVISION:

Trial Division

PROCEEDING:

Originating application

DELIVERED ON:

10 October 2007

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

3 September 2007

JUDGE:

Mullins J

ORDER:

As per draft order initialled by me and placed with the file

CATCHWORDS:

DE FACTO RELATIONSHIP – property settlement – where length of the de facto relationship was 16 years – where there were no children – where applicant had greater income than the respondent throughout the relationship – where applicant had some equity in a house property at the commencement of the relationship – where parties traded in real estate for 10 years – where respondent did not work for the last three years of the relationship – where property adjustment order made dividing the net assets as to 70 per cent to the applicant and as to 30 per cent to the respondent

Property Law Act 1974, s 286, s 333, s 341

FO v HAF [2006] QCA 555, considered
Hickey and Hickey (2003) FLC 93-143, considered

COUNSEL:

A McDiarmid for the applicant
No appearance for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

Schultz Toomey O’Brien Lawyers for the applicant
No appearance for the respondent

1. MULLINS J

   :    The applicant applies for orders pursuant to Part 19 of the

   
   Property Law Act

   1974 (PLA)  as a result of the breakdown in the de facto relationship between the applicant and the respondent that commenced in 1990 and ended in December 2006.

History of relationship

1. The applicant was born in 1964.  The respondent was born in 1969.  At the time they commenced their relationship in 1990 the applicant owned a house property at Kelvin Grove, but no other significant assets, and the respondent had no significant assets.  The Kelvin Grove property had been purchased by the applicant in 1987 for $68,000 with a loan of $50,000.  When they met, the applicant was studying

   
   

   full-time and working part-time as an electrician and the respondent was working part-time as a waitress.  At the commencement of the relationship the parties lived with the applicant’s mother.  The Kelvin Grove property was rented, except for a period of about a year in 1994 when the parties lived in it.

1. The applicant finished his accountancy degree in 1993 and worked as an electrician earning approximately $30,000 per annum until 1995/1996.  During the period 1993 to 1996 the respondent worked casually as a waitress.  In 1996 the applicant commenced with his current employer which is a company that specialises in fire protection.  His commencing salary was $30,000 per annum, but his income gradually increased, until he obtained his current position as a manager in mid 2006, when he commenced earning $60,000 per annum plus a car allowance of about $288 per week.  His current salary and allowances equate to about $81,500 per annum.

1. In 1996 the respondent continued working as a waitress on a casual basis.  She then commenced working in real…