The recent decision of Elford and Elford by the full court of the Family Court of Australia is worth reading when it comes to understanding special financial contributions in property matters during a marriage or de facto relationship.
The facts of Elford and Elford are uncontroversial:
- Mr Elford was 22 years older that his wife
- Mrs Elford had three children from a previous marriage, aged 3, 6 and 9 years
- Mr and Mrs Elford began living together in 2003, in 2007 they were married and n 2012 they separated
- In early 2004 Mr Elford won $622,842 in a lottery and he topped this up to $650,000 and placed the money in a term deposit account in his sole name.
- In 2007, Mr Elford received an inheritance of $190,000 and added this to the lottery money.
- At no time did Mr Elford give or share the money in his term deposit with the wife.
- In 2011 Mr Elford suffered a stroke that left him blind, unable to drive or read. He was on kidney dialysis 3 times per week and needed a paid carer to assist him.
- The asset pool of the parties including superannuation and the money in the Mr Elford’s term deposit was about $1,400,000
- At the trial ,Mrs Elford held about 6% or $84,000 in assets. She received approximately 10% in total.
When the matter went to court, the trial judge decided that Mr Elford give $51,000 to Mrs Elford.
The wife appealed and the Full Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge because it was found that Mrs Elford had not made any contributions to the lottery or inheritance money that Mr Elford had received. Mrs Elford has not purchased the lottery ticket, had not contributed to picking the numbers- had according to the husband and the Court done nothing to contribute to the lottery win.
The trial judge found that Mr Elford has been purchasing lottery tickets since 1995 and had been using the same numbers each week. He also paid for the lottery tickets from his own income. The trial judge found that Mr Elford had never intended the weekly purchase of a lottery ticket to be a joint matrimonial purpose
The trial judge found that Mr Elford had purchased the lottery ticket through his own initiative and he had done so well before the relationship started. Mr Elford did not share this property with the his wife, but rather treated the property as his own. The wife agreed that he did this , even though she was unhappy about it.
The full court of the Family Court of Australia agreed with the trial judge that in this case and on the specific facts of this case, Mr and Mrs Elfords had agreed to keep their finances separate. Mr Elford did not share or use the money he had won in a lottery or the money he had inherited with his wife, he treated his property entirely his own to the exclusion of his wife.
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