Judgment

A Treasury Wine Estates unit has lost its bid to trade mark a red wine bottle with a red screw top, an embossed crest and white label, with a delegate finding it lacked distinctiveness.

A judge has tossed a case by Singaporean commodities trader UIL, finding it did not have binding agreements to buy 500,000 metric tonnes of coal annually from two NSW coal miners controlled by Jindal Steel.

The developer behind a Shellharbour mixed-use development has defeated a suit seeking to make him personally repay a company debt, in a dispute a judge called a “cautionary tale” about side deals.

An architecture firm can maintain its proportionate liability defence in a defects lawsuit over the construction of an aged care facility in Box Hill, with a judge finding it has an arguable case. 

A cabinet maker has been ordered to pay $108,000 in security in a $36 million negligence suit against two law practices who advised on a dispute with a subcontractor over work at La Trobe University.

The Fair Work Commission has found that a former senior lawyer for Cisco was not forced to resign, despite protracted disputes with the company over his health, pay and position.

A judge has allowed US analytics company CoreLogic to withdraw an admission made at the beginning of trial after finding it was due to an error by senior counsel, despite saying that getting a full explanation was like “pulling teeth”.

A judge has tossed oil company Lighthouse's $600 million suit against the government of East Timor after it failed to provide $1.3 million in security ahead of trial.

Hilton has lost its challenge to a $173 million tax adjustment from the 2015 sale of the Sydney Hilton Hotel, with a judge finding the transaction was entered into for the dominant purpose of obtaining a tax benefit. 

A judge has rejected environmental group Save Wallum’s lawsuit against the developers of a housing estate in Brunswick Heads, finding the group failed to prove the development was likely to have a significant impact on threatened species.