The first-past-the-post principle applies to enforcement of settlements in collective actions over a 2014 bushfire in Western Australia, a judge has held, in a ruling that could have ramifications for all class actions.
The settlement of two shareholder class actions against sandalwood producer Quintis has been delayed after the company’s eleventh-hour revelation that it may have an extra $40 million in insurance.
Sandalwood producer Quintis has agreed to settle two class actions by shareholders, but the claims against company founder Frank Wilson and auditor EY will proceed for now.
A judge has ordered the Rinehart family to enter mediation in their feud over a $4 billion trust, saying it was “overwhelmingly in the interests of the administration of justice” to seek an end to the long-running and bitter dispute.
The judge who last month approved a $29 million settlement in a consumer class action against Radio Rentals has held that courts have power to order part of a settlement sum to go to charitable causes where distributing the funds to group members is too hard or impossible.
Companies and other defendants forked over big sums last year to settle more than 20 class actions, with a total of at least $734 million being paid out. Here are the top 10 class action settlements and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
A judge has given his seal of approval to a $29 million settlement that resolves a class action over Radio Rentals’ Rent, Try, $1 Buy scheme alleging customers were kept in the dark about the true cost of their rentals.
The National Australia Bank has admitted to most of the violations alleged in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s case over the bank’s $24 billion scandal-ridden ‘Introducer’ loan referral program.
A subpoena issued by the daughter of mining magnate Gina Rinehart seeking documents from Corrs Chambers Westgarth, the law firm representing her mother’s company, has been set aside by a judge, who found the material had no forensic purpose in the family’s long-running fight over a $5 billion trust.
Former Dick Smith executives Nick Abboud and Michael Potts have pointed the finger at the defunct electronics retailer’s other directors in response to cross claims by auditor Deloitte, which is named in two shareholder class actions over the company’s collapse.