John Xavier Ogburn v Marita Beresford Ogburn; Dominic Ogburn v Marita Beresford Ogburn
[2012] NSWSC 79
At a glance
Source factsCourt
Supreme Court of NSW
Decision date
2012-02-16
Before
Ball J, Mr J
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Judgment (20 paragraphs)
Judgment 1This judgment concerns proceedings brought by each of John Xavier Ogburn ( John ) and Dominic John Ogburn ( Dominic ) for family provision orders under chapter 3 of the Succession Act 2006 (NSW) (the Act ) in relation to the estate of their late father, John Armstrong Ogburn, who died in January 2010 at the age of 84. By his will, the deceased appointed his second wife, the defendant, his executor and left the whole of his estate to her.
The deceased and the defendant 2In 1953, the deceased married his first wife, Moira Abotomey. They had 5 children, including the plaintiffs. The oldest of their children died at the age of 17. 3The deceased separated from his first wife in 1971 and commenced a relationship with the defendant in mid-1972, although they had first met in 1966. The deceased was an artist. In about 1962, he founded the John Ogburn Studio in Lower George Street, Sydney, where he taught students painting and drawing. The defendant was one of his students between 1966 and mid-1968. She is currently 64 years old. 4At the time the deceased and defendant commenced their relationship, the deceased lived outside of Sydney. However, from early 1973 he spent most of his time living at the defendant's apartment in North Sydney. At that time, the defendant commenced working as an art teacher at Loreto Kirribilli high school, where she remained employed until 1983. 5The deceased divorced his first wife in 1973 and, in 1974, he and the defendant began to look for a home to buy. Eventually, in late 1974, they found a property in Boyce Street, Glebe. The purchase price for the property was $42,000. The deceased contributed $27,000 to its purchase price and the defendant $3,000. The balance of the purchase price was financed by a mortgage. The property was bought in the deceased's name. 6The mortgage repayments in respect of the Boyce Street property were paid from the deceased's income and he also used his income to purchase materials used in connection with his profession as an artist. One of the rooms in the Boyce Street property was used by him as a studio. The defendant says that the Boyce Street property was originally put in the deceased's sole name to enable him to claim a tax deduction in respect of the mortgage repayments, since he used the house in connection with his work as an artist. I accept that evidence. The defendant's income was used to pay their general living expenses including food, household provisions, health insurance, entertainment and home decorations. The deceased and the defendant both bought furniture for their home. 7During his life, the deceased earned income from the sale of paintings and from conducting art classes. Each year, he held an exhibition at the Harrington Street Artist Cooperative Gallery, which was a gallery established by him. The defendant was actively involved in the deceased's career as an artist for the whole of their relationship. She assisted the deceased to manage the John Ogburn Studio and she attended one of his classes each week to support him. She also assisted in preparing for each of his independent exhibitions. In their earlier years, they regularly went on landscape painting camps around Australia. 8The defendant and the deceased married in March 1979 and remained married at the date of the deceased's death. They did not have any children. 9In addition to the income the defendant received from teaching, she also received over a number of years substantial distributions from trusts established by her uncle and great uncle. In 1981, the defendant used some of that money to build a breakfast room attached to the kitchen at the house in Boyce Street. The costs of those renovations were approximately $10,000. The deceased also did work on the renovations. 10In about mid-1983 the defendant commenced employment as an art teacher at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Kensington, where she remained until her retirement in 2006. The defendant has also regularly held exhibitions of her own work at the Harrington Street Artists Cooperative Gallery. 11In about 1984, the deceased and the defendant purchased a property in Reuss Street, Glebe as joint tenants and from that time until now those premises have been used as the John Ogburn Studio. The purchase price of that property was $75,000. There is a dispute about how that purchase price was financed. Originally, the defendant said that she contributed the sum of approximately $52,000 to $56,000 to the purchase price which had come from distributions from the trusts established by her uncle and great uncle and money she raised from the sale of shares. In a later affidavit, the defendant gives evidence that, as a result of discovering additional documents, the amount she contributed to the purchase of the Reuss Street property was approximately $50,000. I accept that evidence. The balance of the purchase price, or at least most of it, was raised from an increase in the mortgage over the Boyce Street property. Following the purchase of the Ruess Street property, the defendant and the deceased renovated the shed on it to be used as an art studio. The defendant paid approximately $12,000 towards the costs of those renovations. Others helped with the renovations, including an architect friend, Mr Swetik Korzeniewski, and Dominic. The deceased also made some contributions towards the costs of the renovations, although the amount is not known. 12In October 1989, the defendant gave the deceased $20,000 towards the purchase of a Toyota Troop Carrier for the transport of paintings. 13The deceased and defendant undertook substantial renovations to the Boyce Street property in 1991. The evidence is that the defendant contributed $41,710 towards those renovations and that the deceased contributed approximately $1,800. 14In about 1994, the deceased and the defendant decided to renovate an upstairs bathroom at the Boyce Street property. Some time in the early 1990s, Dominic had been retrenched and at that time the defendant made an interest free loan to him of $12,000. By 1994, Dominic had repaid $4,000 of that loan. The deceased and the defendant suggested that Dominic undertake the renovation work and the defendant suggested that his costs of doing so could be offset against his outstanding loan, which is what happened. The defendant also paid some additional costs of approximately $2,000 towards that renovation. 15In November 1994, the deceased and defendant purchased a property in Reids Flat for the sum of $34,000. It is unclear who paid the deposit of $3,400. However, the balance of the purchase price was paid by the defendant. Subsequently, in September 1998, the deceased and defendant purchased the adjoining block for $4,500. The evidence of the defendant is that she paid the purchase price for that block. I accept that evidence. The defendant and the deceased visited that property approximately four times per year to paint landscapes. 16The deceased's health began to deteriorate in August 2002. In 2003, he developed a Parkinson like syndrome which involved a weakness of his muscles. From about 2004, he reduced the classes he taught to two per week and continued to teach those classes until 2009. At that stage, he had approximately 12 remaining students, including the defendant. 17In mid 2006, the defendant took early retirement at the age of 58 in order to care for the deceased. She continued to do so until his death in January 2010. 18In about April 2008, the deceased transferred the sum of $300,000 from his Macquarie Cash Management Trust Account into the defendant's Catholic Superannuation Retirement Fund Allocated Pension Plan. From that time, an allocated pension was paid monthly into the deceased's and defendant's joint bank account with the Commonwealth Bank and the money was then used to pay for most of their general living expenses, including the deceased's medical and home care expenses. 19On 1 October 2009, the deceased made his last will leaving the whole of his estate to the defendant. The deceased's previous will, which was made in 1988, also left the whole of the deceased's estate to the defendant. At the same time as the deceased made his last will, he transferred the property at Boyce Street to himself and the defendant as joint tenants. 20Following the deceased's death, the defendant organised a Memorial Exhibition of the deceased's work at the Harrington Street Artists Cooperative Gallery. Seven works were sold at that exhibition for the sum of $33,775. The purchasers of those works were four of the deceased's former students, a neighbour, and a friend of one of the deceased's former students. In addition, three additional paintings were sold to the daughter of a former member of the John Ogburn Studio for the sum of $16,400. 21The deceased left approximately 600 works of art which are stored at the Reuss Street property together with notes and recordings. The defendant describes the most important aspect of her life now as conserving, organising, cleaning, authenticating and cataloguing those works with the intention of making them available to a wider public through an illustrated catalogue. The defendant has also commenced conducting her own art classes at the Reuss Street property and she currently has a number of students. In addition, she continues to paint and draw at the Reuss Street property and a studio at home. Her most recent exhibition was at the Harrington Street Artists Cooperative Gallery in the middle of 2011. 22On the deceased's death, the defendant became entitled to the following assets by reason of rights of survivorship: (a)The house at Boyce Street, Glebe; (b)The studio at Reuss Street, Glebe; (c)The properties at Reids Flat; (d)A portfolio investment service account held in their joint names which in April 2011 had a balance of $179,813.47; (e)2,400 shares in Telstra Corporation Limited which were bought by the defendant, but were put into their joint names. 23The inventory of property prepared for the purposes of probate disclosed that the deceased's estate consisted of the following assets at the time of his death: Half share of furniture at Boyce Street $30,000.00 Half share of furniture at Reids Flat $5,000.00 Macquarie Investment Cash Management Trust $68,491.85 Commonwealth Bank Streamline account $58,769.00 Various shares $12,954.96 AMP Flexible Lifetime Allocated Pension death benefit $119,202.09 AMP Life Plan Policy $6,235.00 Paintings and drawings of the deceased $50,000.00 Total $350,652.90