LLB370 FAMILY LAW: Law Parenting Memo - Case Study - MURDOCH UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

Beginning of Judgment Judge J. These proceedings relate to four young children, Mary (a girl now aged 12 months), Dan (a boy now aged 2), Ethan (a boy now aged 6) and Fiona (a girl now aged 9). The parties, in this case, are the applicant father, Vince, and the respondent mother, Patricia. The mother and father met 12 years ago; two years later the wife fell pregnant with Fiona. The parties moved in together at that time. The parties married shortly after the birth of Ethan. They continued living together until just after the birth of Mary. The parties separated because the wife discovered the husband had been having an affair with his best friend wife. Sadly for the parties, this matter has gained some publicity, as the husband is now a well-known public figure. At the time of separation, the wife was very distraught. She immediately left the former matrimonial home (‘the home’), taking the two youngest children with her. The parties are very wealthy and have a nanny. As the wife was moving out to stay with her parents in a country town, she did not feel that she could take all of the children, and she did not wish to disrupt the older children's schooling. The two eldest children, therefore, remained in the home with the father, who cared for them with the assistance of the nanny.