A judge has signed off on a settlement of a long-running class action against Westpac unit BankSA, and has ruled the law firm that brought the case has an equitable right to unpaid legal costs for investigating the case before it found a funder.
Ex-Tennis Australia director and current Dentons partner Steve Healy, who is facing action by the corporate regulator over the broadcast rights to the Australian Open, has lost a bid for access to six years of emails between two other former board members.
A partner at Big Six firm Ashurst has challenged a NSW Supreme Court decision appointing liquidators to his Point Piper home in a protracted dispute with an ex-judge neighbour, saying the judge was confused and made an order which was an “affront to our system of adversarial justice”.
Activist US short seller Bonitas Research is refusing to participate in legal action brought in Australia by Rural Funds Group, as it continues to press allegations of fraud, which sent the agricultural fund manager’s share price plummeting.
Gaming and entertainment giant Konami has lost a bid to amend its defence in a patent case by rival Aristocrat Technologies on the second day of a damages hearing, with the judge finding the changes were contrary to the interests of justice and would require postponing the trial until late next year.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will not challenge a Federal Court ruling that dismissed its case against fund manager IOOF as “unpersuasive”, “fundamentally inadequate” and “tenuous in the extreme”.
Car rental company Australian 4WD Hire will need to take steps to recover deleted, allegedly threatening emails after a court found it had not complied with its discovery obligations in an unconscionable conduct case brought by the consumer regulator.
A judge has dismissed a professional negligence claim against a personal injury law firm, finding no prospect of success for a former client who alleged the firm “coerced” him into settlement of a workplace sexual assault case so they could receive their costs.
The applicant in a shareholder class action against Iluka Resources can put up security for the company’s legal costs by way of two insurance deeds of indemnity, but a bid to use the deeds to replace the $1.25 million it earlier paid in cash security has failed.
A judge is considering whether he can increase a record $75 million civil penalty settlement reached by Volkswagen and the ACCC over the dieselgate scandal, after saying the people of Australia would be “upset” if they knew about some of the “outrageous” terms to which the consumer watchdog had agreed.