Solomon Lew fights to keep family trust legal stoush quiet

RETAIL king Solomon Lew, like fellow billionaire Gina Rinehart, is trying to keep a court stoush over a family trust out of public gaze.

Mr Lew's lawyer, Jack Fajgenbaum, QC, yesterday applied to the Supreme Court for a blanket suppression of a case in which Mr Lew and his wife, Rose, are seeking a ruling that they are the sole beneficiaries of a $621 million trust.

Mr Fajgenbaum gave few reasons for the application, but it is believed Mr Lew's tax affairs and family disputes will be central to the case.

It involves the trustee, the Lews and the former spouses of two of their children, who may claim a benefit from the trust.

Justice Peter Almond adjourned Mr Lew's suppression application for hearing by another judge after he heard it might involve issues he would have to decide in the battle over the trust.

He also set a new trial date of May 7 after hearing Mr Lew's mother had died on Monday.

Another of Mr Lew's counsel, Leslie Glick, SC, said the death meant Mr Lew would be unable to instruct his lawyers.

Last month, the High Court refused to grant Australia's richest person, Ms Rinehart, leave to appeal against the NSW Supreme Court's revocation of suppression orders that had prevented the reporting of her family trust dispute.

heraldsun.com.au 12 Apr 2012

In Jewish circles family affairs are settled at the synagogue level.

If they spill out into the public arena, the common law system that opposes the masses is seen as a farce and any Jew does not have to abide the verdicts given out.