We have started to see the Federal Court use its discretionary powers in respect of class actions to order defendants to disclose their insurance policies to plaintiffs. The emergence of these disclosure orders is an example of the flexible and pragmatic approach increasingly being adopted by the Federal Court in class actions, say Johnson Winter & Slattery’s Frances Dreyer and Nicholas Briggs.
Veritas Advisory liquidator David Iannuzzi has admitted to “quite significant deficiencies” in his conduct as a liquidator and agreed to a 10-year ban from serving as an insolvency practitioner.
Two former executives of Dick Smith may seek to vacate an upcoming trial date for two class actions against the failed retailer, after recently being hit with cross claims by the company’s former auditor, Deloitte.
Allianz and a number of other insurers of Dick Smith are now facing a class action over the extent of coverage under an insurance policy for the collapsed electronics retailer’s initial public offering.
Westpac unit BankSA has reached an agreement to settle a class action alleging it failed to detect the fraud of convicted Ponzi schemer Michael Samra.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is challenging the dismissal of its enforcement action against National Australia Bank contractor Whitebox Trading and sole director Johannes Boshoff, which accused them of market manipulation that resulted in a spike in the price of securities on the ASX-200 index in October 2012.
The funder backing the IAG add-on insurance class action has agreed to a fixed 25 per cent commission, after the plaintiff copped criticism from a judge for the largely redacted funding agreement which called for lower rates if the case settled by a certain date.
Facing cross claims by Pitcher Partners in two shareholder class actions alleging the accounting firm wrongly signed off on Slater & Gordon’s financial reports ahead of a share price nosedive, the law firm and its ex-directors say they relied on the auditor to ensure the veracity of the statements.
Rival law firms Phi Finney McDonald and Maurice Blackburn have offered to consolidate their competing shareholder class actions against BHP after prompting by the Full Federal Court, which said Friday it approved of the plan.
Shareholders of troubled sandalwood producer Quintis who are eligible group members in two consolidated class actions against the company can bet on which of the two cases will give them the best returns, if any, and the Federal Court has appointed an independent lawyer to help them make the choice.