Litigation

The liquidator for collapsed property developer Monarch Tower has lost its appeal seeking an extension of time to bring voidable transaction claims said to be worth $27 million against 13 individuals and companies.

The High Court has rejected a special leave application by the owners of land acquired to build a Melbourne freeway that sought to overturn an "erroneous" appeals court decision which left them with $2 million for land worth over $30 million.

The NSW’s Land and Environment Court has approved plans to amend an approved $4.5 million development application to tear down a $16.3 million Mosman property to make way for a new home and pool.

Property group Catalyst has won $31.7 million from a trustee corporation of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland over a suite of scuppered transactions for land and aged care homes.

Engineering firm WSP may seek to permanently stay a new suit by Canberra builder Morris Construction that claims it should be on the hook for engineering and design failures by a subsidiary, the latest fight between the parties over a troubled Kingston development. 

Engineer Monadelphous has lost a fight that will affect its ability to run a limitations defence in a suit over alleged defects in a sewage plant upgrade on the Sunshine Coast.

Builder Shinetec has argued $48 million paid to the developer of a $185 million project in Sydney by Bank of China under a standby letter of credit was money it lent to the collapsed developer, with a judge seeming to agree the sum would otherwise be a windfall.

Canberra builder Geocon has brought a lawsuit against the developers of the Aspen and Establishment apartment buildings in Canberra, claiming it is owed $4 million in construction payments.

In the latest chapter of a long-running dispute, a developer has failed in its appeal bid to tear down the historic Subiaco Theatre in Western Australia, despite raising public safety concerns.

A judge has declined a creditor’s bid to wind up Victorian builder Roberts Construction Group, finding that the application relied on a “very modest” debt and involved a solicitor’s email “cast in threatening terms”.