Judgment

A judge has ordered Australian Unity to pay a $7.1 million penalty in ASIC proceedings alleging it pumped more than $9.5 million into a risky mortgage scheme without properly vetting investors. 

A tribunal has refused to terminate a lease for a dairy farm in Raleigh, NSW and declined to order $500,000 in compensation over claims the tenants are responsible for deterioration in the property, including the “uncontrolled infestation” of a noxious weed. 

A judge has allowed a shareholder class action over the collapse of asset manager Blue Sky to bring insider trading claims against several short sellers, as well as brokers Credit Suisse and Argonaut Securities. 

A judge has ordered ANZ to pay $250 million in penalties in four cases by ASIC – $10 million more than the bank had agreed to pay – saying ANZ had "substantially deceived” the government by overstating bond trading volumes.

Plus500 has lost its bid to permanently stay a class action by investors who lost money trading in highly leveraged financial products, with a court finding that the arbitration clause relied on by the online trader was unfair and void.

Law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell can't appeal a stay of a costs order in its dispute with media mogul Bruce Gordon, with an appeals court saying disputes fuelled by their “mutual animus” should not be encouraged. 

A Sydney developer has successfully challenged a decision which rejected its plans to demolish a 32-room boarding house for the construction of four luxury residences in Paddington, with a judge calling the decision "personal and idiosyncratic".

The Federal Court has dismissed Walter Sofronoff KC’s legal challenge to the ACT Integrity Commission findings that he engaged in corrupt conduct in his inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann.

The High Court has unanimously granted home retailer Bed Bath N’ Table’s appeal of a ruling that retailer House did not engage in misleading and deceptive conduct in setting up its Bed & Bath stores.

A judge has found the ATO knowingly received millions misappropriated by a former Kupang Resources director in order to satisfy a tax debt against him, with a judge skewering the tax office for instituting a “policy of wilful blindness” in pursuit of the debt.