Mercedes-Benz dealers have lost their appeal of a decision tossing their $650 million suit, with the Full Court backing the primary judge’s rejection of a “moralistic” approach to unconscionable conduct.
Aristocrat has lost its bid to question class action members about whether they have a gambling problem ahead of mediation, with a judge saying it called for “self-diagnosis” and would not yield reliable results.
The corporate regulator has appealed a Federal Court decision that rejected part of its case against HCF Life Insurance over a pre-existing condition term in its policies that was found to be misleading but not unfair.
In the third decision approving an unaltered group costs order at the resolution of a class action, a judge has OK’d an $85 million settlement by ANZ, representing a $21 million payday for Maurice Blackburn.
A judge has given the greenlight to a $10 million settlement with entities linked to late solicitor and Banksia class action mastermind Mark Elliott, noting the “perverse” difficulty of recovering more of the $70 million in assets held on trust.
Two conservation groups opposing Whitehaven Coal’s Winchester South coal mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin have won court approval to adduce late expert evidence on possible climate scenarios.
Melbourne developer SK Developments has won freezing orders against a builder, with a judge finding there was a danger that a $1.98 million judgment could be avoided.
A judge has stopped short of making costs orders against a law firm despite finding it was responsible for delays in a workplace discrimination suit.
A tribunal has found a company that scrapes court databases broke privacy laws by failing to remove a litigant’s name after charges against her were dropped, saying the public nature of court lists doesn’t make republication a “free for all”.
A judge has said ASIC should have known that its case against four TerraCom directors over statements made to investors had no prospects of success, calling one of its submissions “unworthy of the corporations regulator”.