document and that it was executed electronically.[1] The respondent said the applicant was not present when the respondent signed the document and emailed it to Mr C. The respondent said the applicant did not sign the document on 20 November 2023. The respondent was specifically challenged about the applicant's signature on that document to the effect that the applicant at no stage signed it. The respondent disputed that, saying that the applicant signed the notice of intended marriage on the day of the wedding in late December 2023. When pressed about whether the respondent actually saw the applicant sign the notice of intended marriage on the day of the wedding, he said –
"Yes, signed something. Yes".[2]
82 That was highly equivocal evidence and evidence that did not persuade me on the balance of probabilities that the respondent actually saw the applicant sign the notice of intended marriage on the day of the impugned wedding. When shown an amended version of the notice of intended marriage, he said he was not aware of that.[3]
83 Mr C, the celebrant, did not give evidence in this case. It was not possible to obtain his version of the circumstances surrounding his execution of the notice of intended marriage and whether two documents were executed by him.
84 Between 20 November and the date of the proposal in late December 2023 both the applicant and the respondent gave little evidence on any issue of relevance in this case. The applicant did not depose to any aspect of a relationship, if any, between her and the respondent. She did not say whether the two dated, the frequency of their meetings, their intimacy or anything else. For that matter, in her 12 September 2024 affidavit she was wholly silent on events between her trip to Queensland and the day after the proposal in late December 2023. Likewise in both affidavits made by the respondent he did not depose to events between October 2023 and the date of the proposal in late December 2023. However, on his version of events (that I have rejected) the applicant moved in with the respondent in October 2023.
85 It was a common fact that the respondent proposed marriage to the applicant in late December 2023 and that the applicant accepted that proposal. However, the applicant made no mention of the date of the proposal in her 12 September 2024 affidavit nor in her 26 September 2024 affidavit. The respondent deposed to his marriage proposal in paragraph 14
