Noel Hutley

Having lost a challenge to privatisation agreements by NSW Ports, the competition regulator wants to intervene in a High Court appeal by Mayfield Developments, which failed in its own case against the port authority.

The competition regulator is seeking to intervene in Mayfield Development's appeal to the High Court in a case the developer says could have "startling" consequences.

Mayfield Developments has argued the High Court should overturn a finding that NSW Ports was protected by derivative Crown immunity in entering allegedly uncompetitive agreements to privatise two ports, saying the decision could have “startling” consequences such as allowing the state to devise cartel arrangements.

Air conditioning wholesaler Polyaire has been ordered to pay $15.2 million in damages in relation to a 2018 fire at a Seven Hills, NSW, factory complex it leased caused by its placement of wooden pallets in a open yard.

Saying the appeals court committed "fundamental errors" in approaching their claim of loss, the applicants in failed cases against the Commonwealth Bank have appealed to the High Court, in a case that could clarity the elusive test for damages in shareholder class actions.

Two failed shareholder class actions against Commonwealth Bank have been returned to a judge to decide if 'no transaction' claims can still be pursued, a move CBA argues is a way to keep alive cases that are “truly dead”.

Following the failure of two class actions to prove market-based loss from the Commonwealth Bank’s disclosure breaches, the bank is fighting the class actions' bid to pursue individual ‘no transaction’ cases, saying they were “trying to keep something alive that is truly dead”.

The Transport Workers Union and a judge have debated how much of a $90 million penalty handed to Qantas should be given to 1,820 workers who were unlawfully outsourced during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A judge has hit Qantas with a $90 million penalty for unlawfully outsourcing its ground crew staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the airline was “the wrong kind of sorry”. 

Mayfield Development has been granted the High Court's leave to make its argument that derivative Crown immunity does not apply to NSW Ports, in a seven-year-old competition case.