Rinehart steps down as trustee, but case goes to court

Ginia Rinehart, a daughter of Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart, has lost her bid to cancel a trial over the family’s feud,

the

Sydney Morning Herald

reported.

Ginia, 25, is the only child of Gina Rinehart to side with their mother in the legal battle over a family trust. She had argued in the New South Wales Court of Appeal that the dispute should be resolved by private arbitration rather than a public hearing, the article said.

The judge ordered Ginia Rinehart to pay her brother and sister’s legal costs for litigating her appeal, the report said.

The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 8.

Earlier, Gina Rinehart announced that she would relinquish control of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust. The

Sydney Morning Herald

report noted:

Despite the move, her two elder children, John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart, want the case to go to trial and want their mother to be cross-examined over her role as trustee.

Ginia Rinehart objects to her siblings’ proposal to appoint Adelaide businessman Bruce Carter as the trustee. Ginia’s lawyer argued in the appeal that trust documents say the trustee must be a lineal descendant. Hancock’s barrister responded that the constitution was “void and invalid” because of amendments made in 2006 without his client’s consent, the

Herald

article said. (Source:

Sydney Morning Herald,

Oct. 3, 2013.)