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15 SAcLJ Matrimonial Assets and the 3 rd Party 293
(iii)
(iv)
The hearing will take place in chambers 124 ; and
Witnesses may only be cross-examined with the court’s
leave.
202 It is submitted that the procedural regime governing the ordinary
civil suit is not necessarily more advantageous to all parties. In respect of
items (i) and (ii) for each of the above categories, it is submitted that
parties will be able to set out and ascertain the other parties’ cases
whether they are set out in pleadings or affidavits. Indeed, the ancillary
matters procedure, with its several “rounds" of reply affidavits, would
seem to give the parties more than one chance to set out their case, and
even to raise queries concerning the other parties’ cases, unlike the more
structured pleadings regime. In respect of item (iii) for each of the above
categories, there seems to be no obvious advantage, as far as the parties
are concerned, of having the matter heard in open court rather than in
chambers. A chambers hearing would in fact give the parties more
privacy.
203 It is submitted that the most significant procedural difference lies
in item (iv)—the right of cross-examination. It is beyond the scope of
this article to discuss the advantages or otherwise of being able to crossexamine
witnesses. Suffice to say that it is still open to the party in an
ancillary matters hearing who wishes to apply for cross-examination of
any witness to file a summons-in-chambers together with a supporting
affidavit to seek the court’s leave to do so before the said ancillary
matters hearing. This was done in Audrey Lee Dawn, supra, and Ong
Tong Liang, supra, for example.
204 It is therefore submitted that the court should lean in favour of
adopting the ancillary matters hearing procedure in circumstances where
the ancillary matters have been consolidated to be heard with the civil
suit, or ordered to be tried at the same time as the civil suit. This is
because of the unique nature of family and family-related disputes,
where there is a concern to protect the privacy of the parties. In this
regard, see the discussion in Section 5.3 above.
124 As a matter of practice, all ancillary matters in respect of which no consent order has
been recorded on the date of the granting of the decree nisi will be adjourned to be
heard in chambers after the granting of the decree nisi.