The structural engineer behind Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower can examine whether builder Icon Co has been indemnified for $31 million worth of damage which occurred in the 36-storey apartment block on Christmas Eve of 2018, a court has found.
Prefab concrete company Evolution Precast Systems failed to install reinforced concrete in Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower and knew about a prior failure with one of the building’s panels, engineer WSP Structures alleges in a cross-claim lobbed in a class action on behalf of residents of the tower.
Third-party liability insurers may become the latest parties to be dragged into a complex class action over alleged defects in Sydney’s Opal Tower, which has has spawned six cross-claims so far.
Opal Tower builder Icon and structural engineer WSP Structures have been joined as defendants in a class action brought by property owners, who have also added a slew of consumer law claims to the complex proceedings.
A judge has suggested hearing the long-running class action over the Opal Tower disaster as early as the first quarter of next year, as the court juggles three concurrent lawsuits and a slew of cross-claims over the doomed building.
Atanaskovic Hartnell has mostly come up short in a court battle for over $172,000 in legal fees, with a judge finding the law firm was in a “manifest position of conflict” in its dispute with two media companies defrauded by one of its former lawyers, Brody Clarke.
A judge has refused to join the insurer of collapsed Sydney builder Reed Constructions to insolvent trading proceedings brought by the company’s liquidators, after finding it was unreasonable to expect the insurance company to irrevocably confirm coverage.