Banking giant Westpac has criticised Maurice Blackburn for rushing to file the first class action in the wake of the banking royal commission’s scathing final report, saying the self-appointed leading class action firm should know how to properly commence proceedings.
Fairfax Media will seek to use documents provided by the US Department of Justice to amend its defence in a defamation case brought by wealthy Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing over articles that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald linking him to an international bribery scandal.
Trader Daniel Schlaepfer and his firm Select Vantage are seeking over $10 million in damages from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in a defamation action against the corporate regulator, a court heard Thursday on the fourth day of trial in the case.
In a first for the NSW Supreme Court, Judge Peter Garling last week found that the plaintiff in a class action does not need to have a claim against all defendants, a case that could make life much easier for plaintiff lawyers, says barrister Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz of Second Floor Wentworth Chambers.clas
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will not oppose the merger of two companies that own some of Australia’s largest intellectual property boutiques.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, facing cross-claims by credit ratings agency Fitch in a class action alleging it gave false or misleading double A and triple A ratings to synthetic CDOs backed by Sigma Financial, told investors Fitch’s withdrawal of Sigma’s credit rating prior to the collapse of the $27 billion investment fund was a “technical” issue, the bank has admitted.
A judge has ordered directors of collapsed mining company Termite Resources to pay $7 million in damages after finding they breached their duty by distributing more than $46 million to its parent company and failing to maintain a cash reserve of at least $10 million.
Receivers, not just liquidators, can distribute assets to satisfy priority claims of an insolvent company’s employees, a judge has ruled, settling a question of law under the Corporations Act.
The ACCC will announce in May whether it will approve the proposed $15 billion merger of telco giants TPG and Vodafone Hutchison Australia, after the parties’ failure to comply with requests for information caused the regulator to suspend its timeline last month.
Australia’s largest independent coal producer Whitehaven Coal Mining has been convicted and fined $38,500 after potentially harmful gas drifted from one of its mines across neighbouring farmland.
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