Christine Caulfield

Pointing to the "number of downloads in the data room", a director of Melbourne Airport's operator has told a court his concerns about information falling into the hands of international airlines during Dexus' share sale were real.

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.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is on the hook for royalties payable to the heirs of iron ore pioneers Don Rhodes and Peter Wright, a judge has held in a long-running battle over lucrative tenements in the Pilbara region.

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.

A self-disclosed error in modelling by the law firm that ran a class action against Hino Motors has cost the firm an even deeper cut to its payout than the $6 million lopped off its settlement share last year.

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.

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. 

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.

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.