The headnote of Hargraves v Eveston [2018] NSWSC 505 says it all.  It was, according to Hamill J, “unpleasant litigation” where Mrs Hargraves sued her daughter for $1.7M. The warring parties were the only witnesses and “neither presented as a witness of particular credit“. His Honour made the following observations at:

  1. Meanwhile, and sadly, these financial shenanigans have taken their toll on the personal relationships within the family. ….and it is now apparent that the relationship between mother and daughter has been badly damaged. When the parties gave their evidence, people in the back and side of the courtroom, who I take to be other members of the family, made their feelings clear by their visceral and ostensible reactions. There were dark looks across the public gallery. There was scoffing, tsk-tsking, and rolling of eyes. None of this matters very much, at least from a legal perspective, although the palpable, personal hostility between the parties impacted on their credibility and made their demeanour difficult to assess.

Some mothers do have them!

Shout out to Elleni Zacharia for telling me about this case. Elleni works as a part time paralegal in my chambers. If anyone’s looking for a bright and personable graduate lawyer for next year, I’d be happy to give her a reference.

Creative commons acknowledgment for the photograph.

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