A judge has recommended another shareholder vote over Boart Longyear’s plan to move to Canada, saying a letter by a minority shareholder warning the move could imperil a possible class action against the distressed mining services company was misleading and affected the integrity of the vote.
Claims by Wyeth that its patented Prevnar 13 pneumococcal vaccine was inventive because other pharmaceutical giants had failed in developing similar vaccines are based on “hearsay and speculation,” Merck Sharp & Dohme told the court during closing submissions in the high-stakes trial over the world’s best-selling vaccine.
Common fund orders are the completion of the notion of class actions envisaged when the regime was introduced 27 years ago, a joint-sitting of two appeals courts was told on the second and last day of a landmark challenge to what has become an oft-used case management tool by trial judges.
The ABC has called for a “clearer articulation” of former managing director Michelle Guthrie’s unfair sacking claims against the broadcaster ahead of court-ordered mediation.
The judge overseeing a class action against Ethicon over allegedly faulty pelvic mesh implants has shot down the device maker’s bid for a class closure order.
Accounting firm Pitcher Partners will challenge a ruling that it owes a NSW bus operator $5.6 million in damages for fraudulently concealing a costly amortisation error.
An appeal before a historic joint sitting of two courts over so-called common fund orders in class actions kicked off Monday with a full bench of six judges and a packed courtroom hearing arguments by eminent barristers for BMW and Westpac that the orders are either preemptive or pointless.
Deloitte is challenging a judge’s ruling that certain partners not be excused from an order to produce files of the accounting giant’s audit work for Hastie Group to shareholders in a class action over the construction company’s collapse, its latest move after a failed attempt to persuade the judge that a rogue partner had taken the only copies of the files and refused to give them back.
Class action experts have come to the defence of boutique law firm Phi Finney McDonald as heavyweight Maurice Blackburn appeals a judge’s ruling to choose the “less experienced” firm to lead a shareholder class action against BHP Billiton.
A judge has taken Qantas to task over its defence in a Fair Work case brought by the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association union over alleged underpayments to LA-based mechanics, calling the document “extremely unhelpful”.