A judge has criticised as “meretricious” and “ridiculous” opposition by Commonwealth Bank of Australia to a discovery application by a former general manager who claims he lost his job for blowing the whistle on alleged manipulation of staff bonuses.
The lead applicants in two class actions against 7-Eleven are considering bringing a contempt of court motion against the convenience store giant after the Full Federal Court derailed their challenge to prior orders allowing the company to seek litigation releases from franchisees.
BHP has successfully appealed a Fair Work Commission decision that found the mining giant had unfairly dismissed a worker after she placed a sex toy in a co-worker’s baggage at airport security and posed for a revealing photo at work.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has approved Coles’ planned acquisition of chilled meals supplier Jewel, saying the sale was better for competition than the liquidation of Jewel’s assets.
For the lawyers conducting the committal hearings in the criminal cartel case over ANZ’s $2.5 billion equity raising, the Sydney Downing Centre courtroom was already too close for comfort.
Six law firms are working on a consolidated trial of multiple class actions over the collapse of retailer Dick Smith, but when the trial opened in the NSW Supreme Court this week, a lone barrister appeared in court before Justice Michael Ball, amid a sea of empty bar tables. Most of the hearing’s participants joined through a virtual courtroom while members of the public were invited to watch the trial unfold on a YouTube live stream. Welcome to litigating in the age of the coronavirus.
Fairfax Media has failed in its appeal of a judgment that found the publisher defamed Chinese-Australian businessman Dr Chau Chak Wing in a Sydney Morning Herald article that linked him to an international bribery scandal.
BHP has failed in a bid to shut down a class action over the Fundao dam failure pending criminal proceedings in Brazil, with a judge ruling the mining giant would not be prejudiced if the case proceeded for now.
Two units of AMP have paid a $536,000 penalty for failing to report derivative transactions, with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission slamming the company for “serious inadequacies” in its reporting processes.
The corporate cop has brought legal proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit claiming it made misleading or deceptive statements to over 12,000 fund members during the transition to MySuper accounts.