A judge has allowed Aristocrat to appeal a judge’s rejection of its application to patent its Lightning Link poker machine, citing novel questions raised by an equally split High Court decision about the patentability of its invention.
A judge has criticised the pleadings in class actions against ANZ, Macquarie and Westpac over flexible commission schemes for car dealers, saying they were “inappropriate and unhelpful” in referring to documents in the banking royal commission.
A former EY partner and ousted board member at National Tiles has been ordered to pay indemnity costs after he lost a $1 million share dispute with the flooring company, with a judge finding he “unreasonably failed” to accept a settlement offer.
Carnival PLC has denied that a passenger, whose husband contracted COVID-19 and had to be put on a ventilator, had a “horrible” time aboard the ill-fated Ruby Princess, in a class action’s appeal of a finding that she was only entitled to $4,000 in damages.
Class action settlement approval hearings are not a time for the court to second guess a law firm’s contingency fee as set down in a group costs order, a judge has found, but the question of proportionality is still key, and evidence of a firm’s return on investment and hourly fees may be relevant to the final decision.
A judge has signed off on the first-ever settlement allowing a law firm to earn a contingency fee, approving a $12.8 million cut for Slater & Gordon in a shareholder class action against G8 Education.
A property developer has been ordered to pay $11.2 million to the liquidators of Plutus Payroll after a judge found he helped an employee of the defunct payroll services company “wash” money he blackmailed from the company’s directors.
ASIC has won its bid to appoint receivers to a managed investment scheme run by Keystone Asset Management after expressing “grave concerns” that investor funds were used to pay sports stars and buy a $4.3 million home for its former director.
A class action trial has heard that allegedly flammable Alucobond panels provided by 3A Composites and supplier Halifax Vogel are comparable to petrol and could present an “insurmountable challenge” to containing a fire.
A judge has made soft class closure orders in a shareholder class action against Medibank after the High Court has been asked to resolve a split on the issue by intermediate appellate courts.