Zha & Wun

In the matter of *Zha & Wun*, the applicant wife and respondent husband were involved in family law proceedings before Watts J. The dispute concerned the wife's commencement of proceedings in China, Hong Kong, and Australia, and the husband's application for an anti-suit injunction to restrain her from continuing the Australian proceedings. The wife also sought interim litigation funding from the husband.

The court was required to determine whether to grant the husband's application for an anti-suit injunction under s 114(3) of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth). Additionally, the court had to consider the wife's entitlement to interim litigation funding, either by way of an interim property order under s 79 and s 80(1)(h) of the Act, or an order as to costs under s 117 of the Act. The court also addressed the wife's application for an undefended hearing and the discharge of earlier injunctions.

Watts J dismissed the husband's application for an anti-suit injunction, finding that Australia was not a clearly inappropriate forum and that it was not vexatious or oppressive to require the husband to participate in the Australian proceedings. The court reasoned that the husband had failed to provide full and frank disclosure, particularly regarding his overseas assets, and that on the balance of convenience, the Australian proceedings should continue. The court also found that the wife was entitled to an order for litigation funding, either as an interim property order or an order as to costs, noting the importance of a "level playing field" in ensuring a fair opportunity for each party to present their case.

The court ordered that the husband's response to the initiating application and his application for an injunction be dismissed. The husband was restrained from preventing the wife's receipt of rental income from specified properties in New South Wales and China. Furthermore, the husband was ordered to pay $500,000 to the wife's solicitors within twenty-one days, to be applied towards the wife's costs and disbursements, including litigation funding. The wife's application for the proceedings to proceed on an undefended basis was dismissed.