Philip O’Higgins

A developer has succeeded in overturning a ruling that it owes $6.1 million in damages to an off-the-plan buyer after it sold two Brisbane penthouses to other buyers for more than double the original contract price.

Former Youpla CEO Bryn Jones and director Ronald Pattenden have been found to have beached their duties as directors of the funeral insurance firm, which had a deal with an offshore company controlled by Pattenden and another director.

A judge has ordered a Gold Coast developer to honour two off-the-plan apartment contracts, finding it could not rely on sunset clauses to terminate the agreements.

Childcare provider G8 Education on Friday lost a challenge to a ruling that it cover the legal costs of its former chair, who faced criminal charges that were dropped in March.

The purported purchaser of two off-the-plan penthouses in a Newstead high-rise has won his suit against the developer, who sold the apartments to someone else for more than double the contract price.

A judge has rejected a new pleading that would have upped the damages to $135 million in a case by a shareholder of failed energy company Armour Group alleging law firm Baker McKenzie was knowingly involved in a plan to take control of the company for cheap.

A court has ordered ASX-listed childcare company G8 Education to advance the legal costs of its embattled former chair, Jennifer Hutson, who faces a criminal trial next month.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has won its case against four Linchpin Capital directors after a judge found they duped their clients into lining the directors’ pockets and benefitting the parent company.

A judge has allowed four ex-Linchpin directors facing possible fines by ASIC to put off filing evidence or amended defences in an investor class action after they claimed it would put them at risk of penalty in the corporate regulator’s proceedings.

A judge has criticised the liquidators of collapsed financial group Linchpin Capital after they failed to inform the court whether they intend to defend class action proceedings or if default judgment should be made against the company.