Construction firm Icon Co has pressed the Federal Court for an expedited hearing in its case against insurers Liberty Mutual Insurance and QBE over the 2018 Opal Tower disaster, saying it wants to resolve the matter before a class action brought by apartment owners in building progresses too far.
Construction firm Icon Co has rejected QBE Underwriting’s argument that exclusion clauses in coverage for Sydney’s Opal Tower meant the insurer did not have to indemnity it after a series of major cracks in the building led to the evacuation of thousands of residents on Christmas Eve last year.
Mobility equipment provider Country Care Group will fight for the dismissal of three charges brought by federal prosecutors in the country’s first criminal cartel case against an Australian business.
Acclaimed ‘Underbelly’ actor Damien Walshe-Howling is defending allegations that he sexually harassed an extra on the set of Channel Ten’s ‘Bikie Wars’ when he grabbed the actress and forced his tongue into her mouth.
Nationwide News is backpedaling from claims that a $2.9 million defamation judgment won by actor Geoffrey Rush should be overturned because of apprehended bias on the part of the trial judge.
QBE Underwriting has defended its decision to deny insurance coverage to the builder of Sydney’s troubled Opal Tower development, claiming the cracking was not “major” and did not cause last year’s Christmas Eve evacuation.
A former HWL Ebsworth special counsel has appealed a ruling that tossed his unlawful dismissal case against the firm as “trivial” and “wholly unrealistic”.
ASIC and other government regulators bringing enforcement action in the docket of one Federal Court judge must abide by a strict new protocol to prevent a repeat of the corporate watchdog’s “wait and see” strategy in a case against ex-Murray Goulburn directors that came close, the judge said, to bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
A judge has refused a bid by two former Murray Goulburn executives to throw out a disqualification case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, despite admonishing the corporate regulator for its delay in bringing the case and establishing a protocol for regulators filing cases in his docket.
The defendants in the Sydney Opal Tower class action have been formally banned from contacting represented group members about their claims while the proceeding remains on foot, after communications were allegedly sent to apartment owners.