A long-running class action over the Opal Tower disaster has settled, along with two related cases over the defective building, as a five-week trial was set to begin.
The structural engineer behind Sydney’s Opal Tower has taken builder Icon’s insurers to court, arguing they should cover its costs in a class action brought on behalf of residents of the ill-fated building and related litigation.
The structural engineer behind Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower can examine whether builder Icon Co has been indemnified for $31 million worth of damage which occurred in the 36-storey apartment block on Christmas Eve of 2018, a court has found.
Prefab concrete company Evolution Precast Systems failed to install reinforced concrete in Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower and knew about a prior failure with one of the building’s panels, engineer WSP Structures alleges in a cross-claim lobbed in a class action on behalf of residents of the tower.
Third-party liability insurers may become the latest parties to be dragged into a complex class action over alleged defects in Sydney’s Opal Tower, which has has spawned six cross-claims so far.
Members of the Binetter family have sued the trustees of a Nudie Juice co-founder Emil Binetter’s estate for settlement details over debts claimed against the family in a bid to extinguish any judgment debt against the estate, a court has heard.
Opal Tower builder Icon and structural engineer WSP Structures have been joined as defendants in a class action brought by property owners, who have also added a slew of consumer law claims to the complex proceedings.
A judge has suggested hearing the long-running class action over the Opal Tower disaster as early as the first quarter of next year, as the court juggles three concurrent lawsuits and a slew of cross-claims over the doomed building.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
A NSW council has agreed to fork over $16 million to settle a class action over a 2009 rubbish tip fire, after the High Court declined to hear the council’s challenge to a ruling that found it was responsible for the damage caused by the fire.