General Motors has defeated a class action by Australian car dealers over its decision to retire the Holden brand, with a judge finding the car maker did not breach its agreements.
A group costs order giving class action solicitors a percentage cut of the proceeds of a case is a factor in weighing whether proceedings should be transferred from Victoria to a state in which such an order could not operate, the High Court has ruled.
Are group costs orders a factor in deciding a bid to transfer a class action? Can the orders survive the move to an inhospitable state? These questions are to be decided by the High Court Wednesday, in a ruling that will clarify the relevance and reach of Victoria’s contingency fee regime.
Payments processing company EML has won more time to respond to a new pleading in a shareholder class action over its alleged failure to disclose Ireland central bank’s concerns with its anti-money laundering compliance.
A contradictor appointed to represent group members’ interests in relation to a $100 million settlement in a class action against AMP wants to shave $2.6 million off the funder’s cut, telling the court that deductions for ATE insurance and administrative fees should not be approved.
General Motors has failed to overturn a decision that put it on the hook for the applicant’s full costs in a partial settlement in a class action on behalf of Holden dealers, with an appeals court finding GM could not “walk away” from the ordinary meaning of the phrase ‘the plaintiff’s costs of the proceedings’.
In submissions to the High Court, the applicant in a class action brought on behalf of Arrium shareholders against KMPG has attacked the Attorney-General’s argument that a contingency fee order is a neutral factor in assessing the accounting firm’s bid to move the case from Victoria.
An appeals court has questioned General Motors’ construction of its settlement with the applicant in a class action on behalf of Holden dealers, as the car maker seeks to overturn a ruling that put it on the hook for the applicant’s full costs.
The NSW Supreme Court would have the power to deal with a contingency fee order made in a class action against KPMG if the accounting firm won its application to move the case from Victoria, making the existence of the order a neutral factor in the transfer bid, the federal Attorney-General has told the High Court.
Supporting KPMG’s bid to move a class action over the collapse of Arrium from Melboure to Sydney, former directors of the failed steel company have told the High Court the Victoria Supreme Court was impermissibly preferring the policy of its state in finding a contingency fee order made in the case could be factored into a transfer application.