Judgment

A judge has refused a bid by the director of property developer Vantager to stay orders to sell his property while he appeals a decision finding him liable for a “brazen fraud” after negotiating a $45 million sale for a Denham Court property that was only worth $10.8 million. 

A judge has signed off on a $35 million penalty against HSBC in ASIC’s novel case over the bank's scam protection failures, despite questioning whether the penalty was high enough since the case was settled “quite late in the day”.

US-based advisory firm White Oak, which has sued insurer IAL over the collapse of Greensill Capital, has been ordered to hand over WhatsApp messages between its former CEO and billionaire Sanjeev Gupta. 

A judge has ordered the former CEO and chief legal officer of Star to pay a combined $1.1 million in penalties for failing to act on "obvious" money laundering risks, but said the fines would have been higher had ASIC not struck a "generous" settlement with other directors.

The High Court has slashed by 75 per cent the exemplary damages won by former youth detainees in Darwin who were unlawfully sprayed with tear gas, despite finding the conduct was "reprehensible". 

Honda has succeed in challenging a $13.6 million damages award to a former dealer whose contract was broken when the car maker transitioned away from a dealer model.

Asset Energy has failed in its bid for judicial review of the denial of an extension for a permit for its PEP11 gas exploration project off the Hunter coast in NSW.

A former financial advisor and his company have won court approval to run a claim challenging AMP's buyer of last resort policy, despite the company being a group member in a related class action that settled for $100 million in 2023. 

A Whitehaven Coal unit has succeeded in overturned four convictions for a 2020 blast at its Maules Creek mine that was found to breach environmental laws.

Swiss drug maker Novartis has lost its bid to have Pharmacor's Valtresto trade mark removed for non use, with an IP Australia delegate finding that an injunction in a fight over the patent for Novartis' heart drug Entresto was an obstacle to using the mark.