Raini Zambelli

A mid-trial fight has erupted in a class action over the collapse of steelmaker Arrium, with the company's auditor and directors saying the case had swerved, and the plaintiff accusing the respondents of "playing games".

KPMG has told a judge there is no evidence that Arrium's share price would have changed even if it had recorded a $2.8 billion impairment, urging the judge to reject the shareholder class action's "intuitive" case on loss. 

Former directors of steelmaker Arrium have rejected shareholder class action claims that the company's collapse was foreseeable, calling claims they had their heads in the sand “arrant nonsense”. 

KPMG failed to bring the necessary scepticism to the task of auditing failing steel manufacturer Arrium, instead leaving contradictory evidence unresolved and giving the company a clean bill of health, a shareholder class action has told the court.

A shareholder class action against KPMG and ex-Arrium directors says the company's accounts were infected by "chronic and systemic overoptimism", with the former operator of Whyalla Steelworks portraying as viable a business that was impaired up to $2.8 billion.

The prevailing applicants in a contest to run class actions against Hyundai and Kia want all their costs of the beauty parade against the plaintiffs and funders of the failed cases, arguing the whole of their outlay was unnecessary.

The managing director of the Australian arm of property developer Arada has lost his bid to bar a vote on his termination as he and the group's CEO sling allegations of misconduct and dishonesty. 

IC Markets has prevailed in a fight with the applicant in a class action against the brokerage firm, which sought to personalise a notice to group members advising them of the case.

IC Markets is fighting a class action's bid for “highly private and confidential” information about possible group members to craft personalised opt-out notices, arguing the information would be safer in the hands of a third-party mailing house than a plaintiff firm given increasing cyberattack risks. 

A judge has awarded carriage of class actions against Hyundai and Kia to Maurice Blackburn after declining to allow a sixth offer by competing firm Banton Group, saying re-bids outside the orderly process of carriage fights must be "carefully assessed".