Judgment

A judge has set aside a tribunal’s refusal of a developer’s application to build a retirement village on land owned by the Federal Golf Club in Canberra. 

In the first of dozens of similar cases to be decided, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found Uber breached its contract with a driver by deactivating his account over seven complaints.

A Hong Kong company has won its bid to claw back funds from the family of a deceased debtor who transferred a Sydney property to his wife as part of a purported separation agreement, with a court finding the transaction was intended to defraud creditors.

The mayor of a Perth local council has been awarded $250,000 in damages for defamation against a constituent who made a series of Facebook posts falsely alleging that he was misusing a public office.

A court has largely set aside examination orders against executives and solicitors for oil and gas company Moreton Resources and MRV Metals, finding they were an abuse of process. 

Merck KGaA has failed to block Pfizer’s 'Abrysvo' trade mark for its RSV vaccine, with a delegate finding no likelihood of confusion with the mark for Merck’s Mavenclad MS drug despite their visual similarities. 

A judge has refused to bifurcate a dispute between Smart Trikes and Target over the supply and eventual recall of allegedly unsafe convertible strollers, finding any time and cost savings were likely to prove illusory. 

A Queensland solicitor has been fined and reprimanded for sending a letter that “grossly exceeded” an assertion of his client’s rights and making an allegation that was not “reasonably justified” in a family law case. 

A judge has declined to extend an injunction that barred ASX-traded Structural Monitoring Systems from sacking its CEO after he launched whistleblower proceedings against the aerospace company.

A judge has declined to reinstate the ex-CEO of sustainable building not-for-profit Australia Passivhaus Association while her suit alleging she was unlawfully terminated after complaining about serious governance issues moves forward.