Officials at the Mercedes-Benz Australia head office referred to car dealers as “baby piglets” in internal communications and threatened and bullied the retailers, a trial court has been told in a $650 million lawsuit over the car maker’s decision to move to a fixed-price agency model.
A former managing director of adtech company Amobee can proceed with a complaint of disability discrimination by association, after he was fired for failing to disclose a relationship with an employee who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after a sexual assault by a senior executive.
A judge has given a “judicial harrumph” to Sydney developer FKP Commercial Developments and Irish insurer Zurich Insurance in a dispute over coverage for an apartment defects suit, saying it was not for the court to “trawl” through an insurance policy to work out its meaning.
A court has awarded Western Australia premier Mark McGowan and mining billionaire Clive Palmer paltry sums in their defamation battle, with a judge finding that Palmer suffered “very little damage” to his reputation.
Several lenders have appealed a ruling that found they failed to prove steel giant Arrium falsified representations on loan drawdown notices ahead of its $2.8 billion collapse, saying it was a “no brainer” that the company was in dire straits when its directors sought extra funds.
A judge was wrong to find that Mazda’s treatment of customers with faulty vehicles was appalling but not unconscionable, and nowhere in his ruling is there an explanation for the distinction, the consumer regulator has told an appeals court.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will not seek to enforce a $7.2 million penalty agreed to by Dixon Advisory after admitting to the regulator’s allegations that it failed to act in its clients’ best interests.
Slater & Gordon has defeated Shine Lawyers in a contest to run a shareholder class action against Beach Energy, with a judge finding Shine’s tiered contingency fee arrangement was “mere window dressing”.
Bell Potter has defeated a lawsuit by Nicholas Bolton’s Keybridge Capital over a 2015 phone call which lasted one minute and 18 seconds in which the investment firm was accused of committing its client to buy $10 million worth of shares in defunct Molopo Energy.
A judge who lashed “unsatisfactory cooperation” between Chubb and British automotive distributor Inchcape has found the insurer’s policy covers some but not all costs stemming from a cyber attack which allegedly caused over $4 million in loss.