Judgment

A judge has refused to allow an owners corporation to serve late expert evidence in its case against developer Mirvac over alleged defects in a Sydney apartment complex, saying a solicitor’s explanation about “competing commitments” was inadequate and “a circumstance shared by most members of the legal profession”.

The Full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal by human rights group Save the Children, which sought to bring home Australians stuck in Syrian camps, rejecting as “mere conjecture” claims that Home Affairs had a repatriation arrangement with an authority in Syria.

A judge has rejected claims that an investor in the Callide power station, which suffered a major failure in 2021, was responsible for delays in the administration of the station’s operator IG Power, saying the administrators’ ten month delay in investigating the incident was to blame.

A former Queensland prosecutor has had his name struck from the roll after committing several drug offences, despite a judge finding the crimes were linked to post-traumatic stress disorder he developed from exposure to child exploitation material at work. 

An IP Australia delegate has shot down Apple’s application to patent a touchscreen interface used on its electronic devices, calling the invention a “logistical scheme” for organising media files rather than a technological innovation. 

A report into an explosion at a major Queensland power station that left nearly half a million people without power is not protected by legal professional privilege, with a judge finding public statements about the report show it was not commissioned for the dominant purpose of providing legal advice.

A judge has approved a $40 million settlement in a shareholder class action against collapsed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson, with almost half of the settlement to go towards a funder’s commission and legal fees. 

Unable to convince an appeals court that a common law right of appeal exists, disgraced former barrister Norman O’Bryan has failed in his challenge to findings of fraud in a judgment stemming from the Banksia class action saga.

The owner of a major coal power station in Western Australia has lost its bid for an inquiry into alleged misconduct by the receivers of collapsed Griffin Coal after they tried to avoid obligations under coal supply agreements, with a judge saying the allegations were “relatively trivial”. 

The founders of streetwear retailer City Beach have won a fight with the ATO over the taxation of a $52 million disposal of pre-capital gains tax assets.