Rights to share in family trust assets were front and centre in a dispute over housing used communally by a Pasifika family in Pukekohe, south Auckland. This after attempts to remove as beneficiary a daughter-in-law who had contributed financially to the families’ home.
The 2004 purchase of a Cooper family home on Lough Bourne Drive in Pukekohe was set up with two family trusts as owners. Finance for the purchase came from Westpac. George and Tekura Cooper had ten children. One son, Mosiah, was quadriplegic with injuries suffered in a diving accident as a teenager.
Two separate dwellings connected by a garage at Bourne Drive enabled George and Tekura to live in one house and Mosiah with wife Eleanor to live at the other. Of the four, Eleanor was the breadwinner.
Whilst at law Bourne Drive was owned by family trusts, extended Cooper family treated George and Tekura as the owners. Eleanor provided cash to meet household expenses for both families and kept up Westpac mortgage payments. Eleanor was a borrower on the Westpac mortgage.
From mid-2010, Eleanor left fulltime employment to take care of Mosiah. ACC care-giver payments went into father-in-law George’s bank account. He paid an allowance to Mosiah and Eleanor.
Family dynamics changed with Mosiah’s death in 2019 and George’s death in 2022. Extended family took steps to have Eleanor removed as a beneficiary of the two family trusts.
Mortgage payments to Westpac, previously made through George’s bank account, fell into arrears. Eleanor took to paying Westpac direct.
The High Court was told there was dissension within extended family as to Eleanor’s right to trust assets. Some family members were of the view that her contributions were no more than payments for rent and board. There was evidence of prior acknowledgement by father-in-law George that Eleanor should have a thirty per cent share of trust assets. Eleanor wanted payment now. Family said she had to wait until death of her mother-in-in law Tekura.
Concerned trust assets might be run down in the period prior to Tekura’s death, Eleanor registered a caveat against title to Bourne Drive. She claims a property right in Bourne Drive, given the financial contributions she provided for its purchase and upkeep.
Associate judge Sussock ruled the caveat remain, protecting Eleanor’s position pending a full court hearing on any entitlement she may have to family trust assets.
Cooper v. Cooper – High Court (7.06.23)
23.085