New HCA Judgments

Two new decisions were handed down today. Both are continuing with the French J Court’s welcome practice of unanimity. We'll have the summaries up soon but for now:

MRR v GR [2010] HCA 4
This appeal was allowed back in 2009. The Court gave orders allowing the appeal but reserved its reasons for making the orders that it did. The case deals with Parenting Orders under s 60CA of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), and specifically considers the criterion that equal shared parenting must be “reasonably practicable”.

[UPDATE 23/3/10: A lamp post summary of the case can now be found here.]

Amaca Pty Ltd v Ellis; The State of South Australia v Ellis; Millennium Inorganic Chemicals Ltd v Ellis [2010] HCA 5
This is the first of two asbestos related cases that have received special leave in the last year. This one involves a person who died of lung cancer after having been exposed to asbestos. Unfortunately, he was also a pretty heavy smoker. The Court found that causation had not been made out at trial. The mere fact that asbestos may have been a cause of the cancer did not show that it was, or probably was, a cause of the cancer. There is some interesting discussion on the intersection of probability and causation.

[UPDATE 3/5/10: A lamp post summary of the case can now be found here.]