Ernst & Young has delayed in filing its evidence in a lawsuit by Sydney-based investment firm London City Equities over its auditing of collapsed soda ash maker Penrice after hiring Holding Redlich to replace Allens just a few months before a mediation deadline.
The stage is set for a beauty parade of two shareholder class actions against Freedom Foods and Deloitte, and the judge overseeing the cases has embraced the recommendation of the High Court to appoint an independent barrister to represent group members in the contest.
Commercial and class action firm Banton Group is investigating a shareholder class action against embattled technology company Nuix in relation to its pre-IPO disclosures which could also ensnare shareholder Macquarie and its executives, auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers and the joint lead managers on its float.
A judge has refused to sign off on $13.8 million in fees sought by law firm Maurice Blackburn as part of a $44.5 million settlement in a class action against Woolworths, saying the amount was “intuitively out of the range” of what was a reasonable legal bill for the case.
A nearly 100-year-old Bordeaux estate that makes the Vieux Château Certan wine, which retails for at least $500, has taken a Tasmanian winemaker to court for allegedly trying to hijack its name and making knockoff wines that copy its distinctive pink lid and neck of its bottles.
National law firm HWL Ebsworth expelled a former equity partner ahead of its failed initial public offering specifically so he would not participate in the IPO and “others would benefit to a greater extent”, a court has heard.
The failed franchisor behind the Jump Swim Schools brand has been hit with a $23 million penalty for what a Federal Court judge found were “very serious” consumer law contraventions.
A record number of class actions were filed in the past year but shareholder class actions, which have been the primary target of the federal government’s attack on the class action regime, have decreased in significance, says Professor Vince Morabito.
Phi Finney McDonald is investigating a class action against technology company Nuix over its $2.5 billion float, following troubling reports about the Macquarie-backed company’s pre-IPO corporate governance and financial reporting.
Crown Resorts will fight to strike out allegations in a class action that the casino operator was liable for “oppressive conduct” under the Corporations Act, saying there was no legal basis for making the claims and no articulation by the class as to how the company engaged in the conduct.
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