Alistair Pound

BHP has told an appeals court a shareholder class action should not be allowed to expand the group definition to correct an alleged drafting error.

A shareholder class action against BHP over the 2015 Fundao dam collapse in Brazil has won a bid to add an extra three weeks to a six-week hearing to account for any evidentiary surprises.

A shareholder class action against BHP has sought more time to finalise its pleadings ahead of trial, after a judge threw out two class actions against the Commonwealth Bank that also alleged continuous disclosure breaches.

BHP wants to appeal a decision giving a class action the OK to fix what a judge accepted was an “inadvertent mistake” that resulted in a ruling — itself the subject of an appeal — which limited the group member definition.

The judge overseeing a six-year-old class action against BHP over the collapse of a Brazilian dam has allowed the applicant to retroactively amend the group definition, accepting that a pleading mistake was contrary to the intended class membership in the case.

Senior counsel for the banking royal commission Rowena Orr KC has been appointed as a judge on Victoria’s Court of Appeal, with class action silk Alistair Pound appointed to fill her shoes as the state’s solicitor-general.

A five-year-old class action against BHP over the collapse of a Brazilian dam is seeking to amend the group definition following a judgment limiting the class size, but the mining company says it should not be punished for the applicant’s pleading mistake.

A judge has allowed Slater & Gordon to adjourn a fight about security for costs in a shareholder class action against Beach Energy until it has more favourable evidence of its debt financing position, over the energy company’s objection to the “doctrinally unprecedented” application.

A judge has ordered soft class closure ahead of mediation in a class action against five major banks over alleged foreign exchange rate-rigging, saying the applicant’s subjective view on what will assist mediation should not be imposed on the banks.

A judge has questioned the applicant’s opposition to soft class closure in a class action accusing five major banks of rate-rigging, a measure the banks say could save “tens of millions” in legal expenses.