A judge has consolidated competing shareholder class actions against builder Lendlease brought by rival plaintiffs law firms, but has rejected the firms’ bid to jointly run the litigation and says one of them must go.
The Federal Court has rejected an “unusual” confidentiality regime proposed by Domino’s Pizza Enterprises which would have resulted in restricted access to discovered documents for the funder backing the class action against the global fast food giant.
UGL shareholders that signed up to a class action against the engineering company over disclosures related to its Ichthys power plant contract will get less than half of an $18 million settlement, even after the litigation funder takes a steep cut to its 30 per cent commission and the plaintiff’s firm caps its fees.
The law firm and funder behind a class action against collapsed engineering and construction company Forge Group, former directors and their insurers, which has now settled for $16.5 million, have proposed cuts that would see $8.25 million left over for distribution to group members.
The plaintiffs firms running rival shareholder class actions against construction giant Lendlease have pitched a proposal to join their competing cases, a plan that should find favour with the judge overseeing the cases, who recently forced the consolidation of three duplicate class actions against failed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson.
A Federal Court judge has dismissed an application by GetSwift to delay the hearing of a shareholder class action against it, despite arguments that a judge would need to be “superhuman” to hear the trial immediately after a civil penalty hearing brought by ASIC against the logistics company.
Aged care provider Estia Health has launched a bid to strike out the pleadings in a Phi Finney McDonald-led shareholder class action, accusing the law firm of making “speculative allegations” in the hope of strengthening its case later on.
Facebook and Instagram have denied allegations they breached Australia’s competition law when they terminated the accounts of a Melbourne-based startup, saying they were entitled to block the company from their platforms.
Arguing the pleadings are “evasive or ambiguous”, Domino’s Pizza has made a bid to strike out the statement of claim filed in a class action alleging franchisees underpaid thousands of workers across Australia for five years.
Two competing shareholder class actions against developer Lendlease have been locked in for a beauty parade before the judge who recently forced the consolidation of three class actions against engineering firm RCR Tomlinson.