Macquarie Bank is challenging a ruling that it pay $330,000 in pecuniary penalties after it was found to have underpaid a group of former financial advisers because of a “defective and deficient” payment system.
Investment house Washington H. Soul Pattinson is fighting a ruling that it owes its former finance director over $1.1 million in damages after the ASX 100-listed firm terminated the executive without notice and failed to pay out entitlements.
Westpac has hit back at a class action accusing it of colluding with car dealers on a “shonky” car loan scheme that allowed them to hike up interest rates to earn higher commissions, saying consumers could have shopped around for a better deal.
A judge has ordered ASIC to enter mediation before heading into a “very expensive” trial with an IOOF subsidiary accused of giving shonky advice, over objections from the regulator that mediation would be “completely futile”.
IOOF subsidiary Australian Executor Trustees failed to drag law firm Sparke Helmore into a case after it was hit with a $76.6 million judgment over breaches of duty in the sale of a 42,000 hectare timber plantation by collapsed forestry giant Gunns Group.
In Wigmans v AMP the High Court will shortly deliver judgment on the vexed issue of class actions that compete to represent substantially the same class or group. Dr Michael Duffy of Monash University previews the decision.
Bondholders of Axsesstoday are seeking to expand their claims in a class action against the collapsed asset finance lender and its accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers, alleging PwC kept investors in the dark about a spike in the company’s arrears ratio prior to issuing a $50 million bond prospectus.
Two NAB units have indicated they will seek to dismiss a lawsuit over alleged MySuper mismanagement which the court recently ruled was not validly commenced as a class action if the lead applicant fails in his bid to replead.
The High Court has dismissed an appeal by Westpac challenging a ruling that found the bank breached its duties to customers by providing personal financial advice as part of a telephone campaign encouraging customers to roll over external superannuation accounts.
A judge has ordered the winding up of M101 Nominees, the issuer of $67 million in notes promoted by James Mawhinney’s failed Mayfair 101, which is alleged to owe investors over $211 million.