Christine Caulfield

Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart could be on the hook for millions of dollars in royalty payments, in a long-running battle over lucrative iron ore mining tenements in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Two groups have been shortlisted for the final tender in stage one of the Melbourne Airport rail project, part of Victoria's ambitious Big Build infrastructure plan.

Queensland developer York Property has lost its appeal of a ruling that held an adjudicator erred in finding $4.7 million in costs over alleged façade defects should be deducted from amounts owed in a payments spat with a builder Tomkins. 

Before the decision in the Brambles case this week -- the first shareholder class action to succeed at trial -- the path to proving loss from disclosure breaches was a thicket of, well, brambles. Now after six consecutive losses, Justice Bernard Murphy has paved the way for plaintiffs to prevail.

The solicitor wife of South Australia Court of Appeal president Justice Mark Livesey is under investigation by the state's legal watchdog for forwarding client files to her husband.

Institutional asset manager IFM Investor was ready to sweep up Dexus' shares in Melbourne Airport operator APAC under a forced sale process triggered by a default notice for alleged confidentiality breaches, a court heard Tuesday.

The chair of airport operator APAC has admitted redacting advice from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer to remove a suggested remedy for major shareholder Dexus' alleged breach of confidentiality, but denies she misled the board.

A top in-house lawyer at Dexus has told a court the real estate asset manager was using an altered form of a non-disclosure agreement with bidders of a portion of its APAC bloc of shares without the approval of the airport operator's co-owners.

ASIC is not letting up in its pursuit of financial advisors that spruiked the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund, banning two more advisors on top of the seven bans it has already imposed.

The court battle between APAC and major shareholder Dexus over the sale of an investor's stake in the airport operator went to a hearing this week, but it's the solicitors representing the warring parties that found themselves on trial.