De facto partner wins house case

Press, 29 June 1983, Page 1

De facto partner wins house case

PA Wellington An artist has won his case in the Court of Appeal for a half share in a property owned by a women he lived with in a de facto relationship. Mr Justice Cooke said in a reserved judgment yesterday that Elizabeth Sanders had left all her property to a former friend, Enzy Giordani, in a will properly executed in 1969. She met the artist, Edward Hayward, in 1973 and for five years until her death they lived in a de facto relationship. During that time the pair developed a cottage at Orewa. Among Miss Sanders’ papers after she

died, aged 40, was found a document purporting to be her will. In the document she had left all her possessions, including “my house, to Mr E. E. Hayward, my de facto husband, who has been so wonderful to me and given me so much happiness.” It was in her own handwriting and signed by her, but it had not been witnessed and could not function as a will, said Mr Justice Cooke. The case was before the Court of Appeal because the High Court had ruled that Mr Hayward had no interest in the Orewa home, worth about $23,000. The parties were Mr Hayward and the family of Enzy Giordani,

who had died before the High Court action. The Court of Appeal also comprised Mr Justice Richardson and Mr Justice McMullin. The three judges ruled unanimously in Mr Hayward’s favour. Mr Justice Cooke said that there might be a lingering sense that the law should refuse to recognise relationships between men and women as having any bearing on property rights if they fell short of legal wedlock. “But a function of the Courts must be to develop common law and equity so as to reflect the reasonable dictates of social facts, not to frustrate them.”