An offer by billionaire Clive Palmer to pay $21 million for all remaining shares in villas at the Palmer Coolum Resort in Queensland and drop 14 lawsuits over resort ownership has been rejected by villa owners.
A judge due to hear a high profile appeal by Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon has expressed confusion about the grounds on which the medical device maker is challenging a landmark judgment putting it on the hook for potentially hundreds of million of dollars in damages over faulty pelvic mesh implants.
The lawyers behind two class actions against clothing retailer Surfstitch breached their duties to act in the best interests of shareholders, and their conduct should bar them from pocketing more than $6 million claimed in costs and commission in the protracted litigation, a court has heard.
A judge has found that auditor Ernst & Young cannot rely on the privilege against self-incrimination in a lawsuit brought over its audits of failed financial services firm LM Investment Management.
James Mawhinney, director of the besieged Mayfair Group, has lost his bid to slow down two proceedings filed by ASIC which he claims will have a “catastrophic” effect on his business, staff and investors.
Billionaire Clive Palmer has claimed that he wrote the lyrics to ‘Australia’s Not Gonna Cop It’ in the early hours of the morning while “deep in contemplation” at his bedside, telling the Federal Court that the song was inspired by the Peter Finch film ‘Network’ and not Twisted Sister’s rock anthem.
A judge’s decision to throw out a shareholder class action against engineering company Worley is a loss for plaintiffs lawyers and could result in fewer listed companies willing to settle cases alleging they breached their disclosure obligations, but the ruling is not likely to have a significant chilling effect on securities litigation.
Medical device maker Covidien has lost a bid to have the applicant in a product liability class action over allegedly defective pelvic mesh front $300,000 as security for its legal costs in the event it wins the case.
The maker of pain killer Maxigesic is taking its long-running battle with Nuromol manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser to an appeals court after a recent ruling that its advertising misled consumers by claiming Maxigesic provided better, faster and more effective pain relief than paracetamol or ibuprofen.
A judge has given the greenlight to AUSTRAC’s $1.3 billion penalty against Westpac over the bank’s 23 million breaches of money laundering and counter-terrorism laws, the biggest regulatory fine ever paid by an Australian company.