MinterEllison

The ex-chair of former ANZ unit OnePath “has not been cooperating” in a class action alleging it breached its duties as a trustee of superannuation funds by slugging members with excessive fees to pay commissions to financial advisers, a court has heard. 

A judge has ordered credit card giant American Express to pay $8 million in ASIC’s first-ever case over design and distribution obligations, but has criticised the recently enacted provisions as being “poorly drafted”. 

Seeking to quash search orders won by metals company Fortescue against former employees who founded a green iron rival, a lawyer for the start-up has said three terabytes of data were indiscriminately copied, including confidential, privileged and irrelevant material.

Metal mining company Fortescue hired private investigators to spy on former employees who created green iron start-up Element Zero, sifting through their mail, taking photos of their children and following them to Kmart, a court has heard. 

Start-up Element Zero claims Fortescue did not disclose material information to the court when it obtained search orders in its case alleging “industrial scale misuse” of the mining company’s confidential information.

In a loss for the Australian Taxation Office, the Full Federal Court has found that payments made by Asahi Breweries-owned Schweppes to PepsiCo under agreements to sell brands such as Pepsi and Mountain Dew in Australia were not subject to a royalty withholding tax. 

Trial in ASIC’s action accusing former Dixon Advisory director Paul Ryan of breaching his duties began Monday, a case that puts the spotlight on legal advice over a deed that affected the wealth management firm’s capacity to recoup a $19 million debt on the eve of its collapse.

A judge has thrown out a shareholder’s case against Slater & Gordon over the firm’s takeover by private equity firm Allegro, after finding the firm was not the proper target for the claims. 

Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann has yet to engage lawyers to pursue his appeal of a judge’s finding that he raped colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, but while he has the right to represent himself, experts have told Lawyerly it would be “very unwise” for him to run the case on his own.

Fortescue has brought legal action against start-up Element Zero and three former employees, alleging “industrial scale misuse” of the Western Australian mining company’s confidential information.