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Case Reports - Civil Law Justice comes after 29 years Mrs Florence Bueback lived with Arthur Cheetham for 27 years before his death in 1970. Mr Cheetham died without leaving a will. His house was sold for $14,200, and along with it Mrs Bueback’s furniture and household goods. Mrs Bueback received $6,132.50 in recognition of her contribution to the purchase of the house, however, the balance of $9,723.42 has been sitting in NSW Treasury ever since. Mrs Bueback, as his de facto partner, was not entitled to the money because the law did not recognise de facto relationships at that time. By law, Mr Cheetham’s sister was entitled to the balance of his estate, however no claim was made by her. If Mrs Bueback had been able to show that this sister had died before Mr Cheetham, leaving no children, she could have made a claim, however she had no information of the sister’s married name, nor about where she lived or died, or whether she had children. Mrs Bueback made several attempts to get the money over the last 29 years, but those attempts came to nothing. Finally, she approached our Wollongong office and civil lawyer, Megan Pikett took on the case. “Mrs Bueback’s situation was common until the passing of the De Facto Relationships Act in 1984,” says Megan. “Everyone recognised that the situation was unfair, but there was little that could be done because we couldn’t find any information about the death of Mr Cheetham’s sister." Legal action would have been expensive and the outcome problematic, so Megan approached her Member of Parliament, Colin Markham to see if he could assist with a request for the money to be paid to Mrs Bueback as an ’ex gratia’ payment. The Commissioner for State Revenue agreed to make the ex gratia payment, ending Mrs Bueback’s 29 year wait. Back to full list of case reports |
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