Villa & Villa (No 3) [2025] FedCFamC1F 743 (25 March 2025)

1. There is no Court known by the name "Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia".
2. The design of the seal affixed to this order issued by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 1) has been determined by the Attorney-General pursuant to the undated Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Seal) Determination 2021 signed by the Attorney-General.

Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court's records.

Note: This copy of the Court's Reasons for judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 10.14(b) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 10.13 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth).

Part XIVB of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to publish an account of proceedings that identify persons, associated persons, or witnesses involved in family law proceedings.

IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment by this Court under a pseudonym Villa & Villa has been approved pursuant to subsection 114Q(2) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

1. During the course of discourse last week when the matter was before me, I expressed a number of reasons why, at that stage, I was persuaded that the most appropriate course was to stand the application over to the start of the trial so that I would be in a position to deal with objections to the evidence and have before me a clearer appreciation of the evidence and the bases upon which, at least in part, the application for adjournment was advanced and why I was then not persuaded that it was appropriate to adjourn this trial.
2. I re-express the reasons underpinning that decision in short form, noting that there is no right of appeal in relation to a decision refusing an adjournment. Even noting this, it seems to me to be appropriate to provide reasons in short form; to give, in essence, a couple of dot points about why I am not persuaded to adjourn the hearing.
3. The reasons are as follows:

(a) the matter has been accorded significant priority in its listing; and

(b) the matter was previously listed for trial in, I think, September of last year; and

(c) various directions have been made by consent since that listing, predominantly in December, in order to facilitate the matter progressing; and

(d) its priority has meant that it has, in a sense, overtaken matters which were commenced by filing up to 18 months prior to it being filed.

1. I have taken those matters into account; I have also taken into account the impact of adjourning the trial on the Court's capacity to deal with all of the matters that are listed before it. I have taken into account that the parties have undertaken significant preparations, it seems, in order to be able to press on with the trial.
2. I also take into account the rulings I have just delivered in relation to various objections to the evidence, which, at least in part, it seems to me, diminish the bases upon which I might otherwise have been persuaded that there was prejudice of a sufficient nature as to persuade of the exercise of discretion to adjourn in the interests of justice.
3. I will formally then dismiss the application for an adjournment, sealed 18 March 2025; I will reserve the costs of and incidental to that application.

I certify that the preceding six (6) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Ex-Tempore Reasons for Judgment of the Honourable Justice Hogan.