Australia, Aug. 26 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on July 25:

1. PAYNE JA: I agree with Free JA.

2. STERN JA: I agree with Free JA.

3. FREE JA: This appeal concerns an application for family provision under the Succession Act 2006 (NSW) (Succession Act), arising from the death of Con Alexiou.

4. Con Alexiou died on 11 May 2019 at the age of 88. His wife of over 40 years, Sofia, died in 2001. Con was survived by his two children, Voula Alexiou and Arthur Alexiou. Voula was born in 1959 and Arthur in 1962. Arthur and his wife Maria have two children, Costa Alexiou (b. 2003) and Jason Alexiou (b. 2005). As is conventional in matters of this kind, and without intending any disrespect to the parties involved, I will refer to these members of the Alexiou family by their first names. There are other members of the family, but these are the key individuals for the purposes of examining the issues requiring determination.

5. In order to understand the disputes that have arisen, it is necessary to explain the treatment of certain assets acquired by Con and held at the time of his death. By 1999, Con (or companies under his control) had come to own a block of land in Batt Avenue, Jamisontown, a suburb of Penrith. In around 1999, two industrial units were constructed on that land. In January 2013, the land was subdivided by registration of a strata plan, resulting in the creation of two lots, each featuring one of the units. In 2014, Lot 1 was transferred to a company called Alexicon Pty Ltd (Alexicon) and Lot 2 was transferred to a company called VLN Pty Ltd (VLN). Con owned the shares in both Alexicon and VLN. Subject to certain mortgages, Alexicon and VLN retained ownership of Lot 1 and Lot 2 respectively at the time of Con's death, and Con retained ownership of the shares. The unit located on the Alexicon land is known as "Unit 1". For ease of reference, I will refer to the unit located on the VLN land as the "VLN Unit".

6. In or around 2005, Con came to hold a property at 44 East Street, Blakehurst (Blakehurst Property) as a joint tenant with Voula. Con assisted Voula with the purchase of the Blakehurst Property. Before his death Con lived at the Blakehurst Property with Voula and her family. At the time of Con's death, the Blakehurst Property had an estimated value of $1.3 million. By the time of trial (which commenced in 2022), the value of the Blakehurst Property was said to have risen to between $1.75 million and $2.1 million, and the property was subject to a mortgage debt of $815,000.

Con's wills and the significance of Arthur's litigation and bankruptcy

7. Con made three wills following the death of Sofia. In April 2008, he executed a will (2008 Will) which, in substance, divided his estate assets equally between Voula and Arthur. The 2008 Will was made in anticipation of the subdivision of the land in Jamisontown. Assuming the subdivision proceeded as planned, the 2008 Will provided for the shares in VLN to be given to Voula and the shares in Alexicon to be given to Arthur. The residuary estate (which does not appear to have been of any substantial value at the time) was given to Voula. Voula was also appointed executrix and trustee of the will.

8. The 2008 Will also purported to gift Con's interest in the Blakehurst Property to Voula. As explained below, that remained a feature of each of the wills subsequently made by Con. In each case, the purported gift was unnecessary and ineffective. By virtue of Voula's right of survivorship under the joint tenancy, if Con predeceased her Voula was bound to become the sole owner of the Blakehurst Property. This is what transpired upon Con's death in 2019 and Voula has since been registered on title as the owner of the property.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19839bd28e5a69869386262f)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.