Judges

The shareholder leading a class action against failed fund manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments has lost a bid for a split trial it accepted was novel, despite arguing the usual course for trials in securities cases was "misconceived".

Open4Sale Global's directors have been penalised $2.6 million for breaching disclosure laws in raising money from investors, who were labelled "a bunch of idiots" by the company's boss.

A court has ordered the de facto director of failed construction company Trinco to pay its liquidator $10 million, finding that the builder had been trading while insolvent since 2018.

An ex-Keystone director has raised concerns that expanding a freezing order over his assets would impact his ability to pay his solicitors at law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

Atanaskovic Hartnell is appealing a decision barring the law firm from enforcing a costs judgment against a company of media mogul Bruce Gordon and quashing a garnishee order directed at Nine.

Ray White has secured a stay of examinations of its employees, as a creditor of FSM Development investigates claims the real estate agency's loan agreement with the collapsed Sydney developer was uncommercial.

Mastercard has lost its claim for legal professional privilege over communications between its chief financial officer in Singapore and in-house counsel about merchant agreements the ACCC alleges were anti-competitive. 

A judge has approved a 33 per cent group costs order in a class action against Sportsbet, saying the relatively high rate was justified by the risks of running the “relatively novel case", which seeks repayment of gambling losses stemming from allegedly unlawful services.

A Federal Court judge has predicted class action defendants will start arguing law firms cannot cooperate in running class actions, after a different judge hearing a case against Google recently remarked that such arrangements could be anti-competitive. 

The owners of a landmark building in the Sydney suburb of Manly have lost their challenge to a decision which found they owed the local council over $419,000 in car park licence fees and damages for installing a roller door.