John Sheahan

Bond & Credit Company has lost its bid to bring a new claim in defence to $6 billion proceedings over the collapse of Greensill that alleged the financial services company failed to disclose its “moral hazard” behaviour of being dishonest with insurers.

The High Court has rejected an appeal from a joint venture that provided work on Chevron’s Gorgon liquified natural gas project that argued the Western Australia appeals court lacked power to uphold a ruling that set aside an arbitration ruling in a $130 million dispute over the project.

A judge has signed off on a $230 million settlement of a class action on behalf of thousands of junior doctors who allege they were systemically underpaid by the NSW government.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority says a coding error on a dormant website that went undetected for four years was behind a massive data breach that exposed the information of close to 10 million Optus customers, with the regulator saying the hack was “not highly sophisticated”. 

A judge overseeing several cases against Optus over a September 2022 data breach has raised the possibility of hearing a class action against the telco alongside new proceedings brought by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

The judge overseeing AUSTRAC’s case against Star Entertainment has questioned the parties’ agreement to refer questions of fact and law to a former judge for determination, rather than an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing expert. 

Optus has lost its appeal of a decision that found the telco could not claim legal professional privilege over a Deloitte report into a major data breach, with an appeals court highlighting the lack of evidence from former CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.

Challenging a ruling that it breached its continuous disclosure obligations, ANZ has argued on appeal that it did not need to inform the ASX of a bailout by the underwriters of a 2015 institutional share placement because the information didn’t go to the fundamental value of its shares.

Optus has denied that it ‘cloaked’ the true dominant purpose of a Deloitte report into a major data breach in 2022, arguing on appeal that the report was privileged and that a class action should not have access to it. 

Uber has hit back at claims that it engaged in corporate espionage by using a software program called SurfCam to lure drivers away from rival GoCatch, saying its actions could not be compared to burglary because the material it obtained was not confidential.