The High Court has granted applications by Westpac and BMW to weigh in on the validity of common fund orders made in class actions, a decision that could have major ramifications for the way representative proceedings are funded.
A court has dismissed a long-running case against defunct Babcock & Brown executives by a private investment fund over a botched $1.4B acquisition of the biggest laundry equipment provider in the US, saying the executives did not breach their duties by failing to disclose that the bank underwriting the deal allegedly wanted out.
A battle over expert evidence in an invester class action against Fitch Ratings has delayed this month’s scheduled trial in the case by three months and forced the court to send the parties’ experts into conclaves.
Industry-owned Queensland Sugar Limited has succeeded in dismissing a court case brought by Wilmar Sugar Australia after record-high rainfalls led to a $60.8 million loss in 2010.
The Montarra oil spill class action trial has been pushed back by two weeks, following the filing of late expert evidence by the applicants “without leave, without notice,” according to oil company PTTEP.
Pay TV giant Foxtel has lost an appeal of an IP Australia decision refusing to revoke a trade mark by telco China Unicom after a failure of the trade mark office’s online filing system meant its law firm, Allens, missed the deadline for opposing the mark.
A judge overseeing discovery in a class action against global engineering company CIMIC Group has called out the legal profession for an “extraordinary” new trend of relying on solicitors’ affidavits in claiming privilege over evidence.
Charges in the criminal cartel case against ANZ, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank over a $2.5 billion ANZ institutional share placement have yet to be finalised, almost a year after the proceeding was filed.
ANZ Bank executives briefly considered relaunching and repricing a botched $2.5 billion equity capital raising at the heart of two groundbreaking enforcement actions, and the decision by the share placement’s underwriters to instead pick up a $790 million shortfall deprived investors of lower priced shares, a court has been told.
The trustee of the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust wants more details about an ecological landscaper’s allegation that it breached its duty of care by failing to make adequate disclosures about climate change risks.