Celia Winnett

The date has been set for a court battle over Dexus' sale of shares in Asia Pacific Airport Corporation, a fight the operator of Melbourne and Launceston airports says needs 10 hearing days.

The lead applicant in a failed class action against ex-NAB super trustee NULIS Nominees has lost his bid to stay a costs order of some $12.5 million pending an appeal.

The lead applicant in a failed class action against NULIS Nominees has argued that any costs orders should be stayed until after its appeal, while the ex-NAB super trustee claims it should have $8 million in costs paid now. 

Dexus' denial of a breach of confidentiality in a battle with co-owners of airport operator APAC is unlikely to hold up, a judge has said, and what appears to have been done can't be undone. What the high-stakes row will come down to, he says, is materiality.

In explaining where CBA shareholders went wrong in proving damages from the bank's omissions over an AUSTRAC probe, the Full Federal Court has given class action plaintiffs the clearest indication yet of how they might win.

The failure of two class actions to prove loss linked to the Commonwealth Bank's disclosure breaches was not the fault of the bank, an appeals court has held in dealing the latest blow to shareholder group proceedings. 

Two class actions against Commonwealth Bank have partially succeeded on appeal, with a finding that the bank breached its continuous disclosure obligations, but damages still elude shareholders.

Resolving a split between courts, the High Court has confirmed that judges have power to make soft class closure orders, which require class action members to register before mediation to participate in any resulting settlement.

An appeals court has rejected Dexus' challenge to a finding that it must sell its 50 per cent stake in Sydney’s largest suburban shopping centre to Macquarie Retail, saying its arguments contradicted the “evident commercial purpose” of the contracts at issue.

A Dexus property fund has argued that a judge went the “wrong way” in deciding that it was forced to sell its 50 per cent stake in Sydney’s largest suburban shopping centre to Macquarie Retail.