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.
Irrigators in Australia’s South East have launched a class action against the Murray-Darling Basin Authority claiming its mismanagement of the river system caused up to $830 million in losses.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission wants ASX-listed diamond mining company Merlin Diamonds wound up, expressing concerns about the company’s solvency and over $13 million in loans made to companies associated with Merlin’s director, Joseph Gutnick, without shareholder approval.
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 court has thrown out a $75 million compensation claim filed by an investor in a Ponzi scheme alleging liquidator Grant Thornton Australia and its lawyers Colin Biggers & Paisley failed to return his funds expeditiously.
APRA has been ordered to hand over all of its correspondence with fellow regulator ASIC relating to former IOOF chairman George Venardos, as he prepares to argue privilege over discovery that might incriminate him in any possible ASIC proceedings.
The Bank of Queensland has criticised a judgment which found the bank’s insurance policy left it on the hook for a $6 million settlement of a class action brought by investors in a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme by jailed fraudster Bradley Sherwin.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has opened a review into the proposed $350 million acquisition of a unit of global agribusiness GrainCorp by storage and handling specialist ANZ Terminals.
A judge has sent a dispute between oil giant Viva Energy and a Panama-based oil transporter over petroleum allegedly contaminated during transport into arbitration.
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.
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