The High Court has dismissed an application by accounting giant KPMG to transfer a class action over the collapse of mining company Arrium from Victoria to NSW.
A fight over the venue for a class action against KPMG by investors in the collapsed mining company Arrium has been taken to the High Court, and at the centre of the battle is a contingency fee order made in the case.
A judge has approved a 40 per cent group costs order for the law firm that’s running a class action against KPMG and former directors of collapsed mining company Arrium, the highest approved since the state began allowing lawyers to earn a cut of class action awards.
A funder that’s helping foot the bill in a class action against Arrium’s former directors and KPMG may withdraw support if the law firm that’s running it is not granted an order awarding it 40 per cent of any award or settlement.
Five enforcement officers of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be cross-examined by lawyers for banks facing price fixing charges over their conduct following ANZ’s $2.5 billion capital raising six years ago.
A judge overseeing a cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement has granted ANZ’s bid for unredacted documents which the bank says will support its claims that the case should be permanently stayed because of improper dealings between whistleblower JPMorgan, ASIC and the ACCC.
Four executives of the failed Arrium have named auditor KPMG as a “concurrent wrongdoer” in defending a shareholder class action over a $754 million capital raising two years prior to the mining and steel giant’s $2 billion collapse.
JPMorgan is fighting to keep details of failed settlement talks with ASIC under wraps in criminal cartel proceedings over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, as ANZ seeks to uncover whether the corporate regulator made a deal with the investment bank ahead of the cartel case being filed.
A bid by KPMG to push off the filing of its defence in a class action over misleading statements ahead of Arrium’s $754 million capital raising in 2014 has been shot down by a judge, who said the auditor has known the claims against it since November.
Whether a contingency fee order made in a Victoria Supreme Court class action can survive a transfer application to a NSW court could be the next high stakes class action issue for the courts.