Bonds for Overseas Travel- Size Does Matter.

In Lau & Feizhou and Anor [2014] FamCA 182, Justice Aldridge sitting in the Sydney registry of the Family Court had to decide whether two young children should be permitted to travel to mainland China, a non-convention country,with their maternal grandmother with whom they resided in Australia.

The real issue for the court was whether or not the children would be returned.

The grandmother had proposed that a bond of $50,000 be lodged in her lawyer's trust account with that sum to be available for use by the father to secure the children's return to Australia should that become necessary.

The grandmother, was a Chinese citizen and deposed to having homes in both Australia and China however did not adduce evidence of her financial position.

The husband's evidence was that, from his observations, the maternal grandmother was very wealthy and had considerable property and business interests in China.

In providing a number of reasons for dismissing the grandmother's application, His Honour held that the value of providing a bond, hinged upon the relationship between the amount of the bond and the amount of the person's property, the court noting as follows:

"

15.Very wealthy people may be prepared to lose significant sums of money if it enables them to achieve a particular end that they seek. Thus, the value of a bond is directly dependent upon the amount of wealth available to the person providing the bond. In this case, there is no way to judge the value of the proposed bond because there is no evidence provided by the maternal grandmother as to her wealth. "

Having regard to the evidence the court could not be satisfied that the proposed bond of $50,000 was adequate.