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Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 21 May 2021. After a messy divorce, Tina enters into a relationship with Harry. Tina already has two children, namely Elizabeth and Emma. Tina and Harry get married and 10 years pass. Unfortunately, Tina is diagnosed with cancer. She makes a will leaving her estate to her two children equally and makes arrangements for her superannuation to be paid to Harry. Tina also grants Harry the right to reside in the matrimonial home, registered in her sole name, for six months after her death. Harry makes a will leaving his estate to [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 14 May 2021. Gabby and Ted are best friends and after a number of discussions, decide to embark on a small business venture together. Gabby has saved enough to fund the initial capital to put into the business. In return, Ted plans to work full-time in the business while Gabby will only work around 15 hours a week. Gabby and Ted decide that each will own 50 percent of the business. Due to their close friendship, they feel that there is no need for a formal written agreement between them. The business starts [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 30 April 2021. Tara is a motoring enthusiast, her pride and joy being a cherry-red 1969 Ford Mustang.  One day, local hooligans break into her garage and they are off for the joy-ride of their lives! Tara arrives home the next day to find her beloved Mustang gone. She immediately calls the police and quickly begins printing leaflets offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the ‘despots’ who took her car. She distributes the leaflets around town. Around the same time, Jim, who is into trail bike riding, [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 23 April 2021. Henry and Peter purchase a large rural property together. The property has four dwellings on it. They agree to each live in one of the larger homes and they each choose one of the other cottages to rent-out and each receive the rental income from that cottage. They agree to contribute equally towards the mortgage repayments and outgoings and to share the responsibility of maintaining the property. Excited by the prospect of their joint venture, they do not worry about putting anything in writing. They purchase the property as tenants-in-common. [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 16 April 2021. John purchases a property for $2 million and obtains a loan to finance the acquisition. Unfortunately, John soon finds himself unable to work due to the restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic and as a result, his mortgage falls into arrears. The bank obtains default judgement and ultimately takes possession of John’s home. After an unsuccessful attempt at auction, the bank enters into a contract to sell the property for $1.2 million. John is not happy with the sale price and lodges a caveat preventing the sale, claiming that [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 9 April 2021. After a $20 million lotto draw is conducted, there are three winning tickets. Two are claimed by ticketholders and they each receive their one third of the prize pool. The third ticket has never been produced. In an effort to prompt the missing ticketholder to come forward, the winning numbers are publicised. 40 persons claimed to have once held the winning ticket, but no one was able to provide sufficient evidence that they purchased the ticket. The unclaimed prize money is transferred to the New South Wales State Consolidated fund. [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 2 April 2021. When Nina is in her late eighties, she visits her solicitor to update her will.  She has five children and appoints her eldest children, Adrian and Donna to be her executors.  Whilst Nina’s other three children are relatively ‘easy going’, Nina describes Adrian and Donna as highly strung and explains to her solicitor that she would like to appoint them because “they will make trouble if I don’t”. Her solicitor advises that, it would be unwise to appoint the two children who typically disagree. However, Nina insists and her will [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 26 March 2021. John lives alone in rental accommodation. He has a relatively small bank account and apart from his car and household effects, his only other significant asset is a substantial superannuation fund that he conscientiously contributed to during his working career. Since his wife passed-away several years ago, he has not heard from his two children, despite John sending them Birthday and Christmas cards. John is concerned that if he loses the mental capacity to make decisions about his welfare, such as where he lives and what medical treatment he should [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 19 March 2021. Ronald is charged by the RSPCA with serious animal cruelty under the Crimes Act, alleging that he committed a serious act of cruelty upon a dog, with the intention of inflicting severe pain and that he seriously injured and killed the animal. Ronald appealed his conviction by the Local Court arguing that he had a valid defence because the dog was a “pest animal” and that his conduct, amounted to nothing more than “extermination of pest animals”. The Court of appeal accepted that the dog was a “pest animal” because [...]