Judgment

The owner of Northcote Shopping Centre in Melbourne has lost its bid for leave to appeal in a fight with budget supermarket Aldi over whether clauses imposing a cap on rental increases is contrary to the Retail Leases Act.

A shareholder class action has won access to reports by FTI Consulting and KPMG that were commissioned by water remediation company Phoslock, with a judge finding they were not created for the dominant purpose of providing legal advice.

A judge has approved a $550 million settlement in a class action over the Morrison government’s Robodebt scheme but has halved a funder’s payout to $35 million, despite arguments that it was unprecedented to award a single digit percentage commission. 

A judge has declined to grant an injunction to stop Southern Cross Gold unit Clonbinane Goldfield from commencing works on its Sunday Creek exploration tunnel project until a challenge to the government’s approval is resolved.

A judge has sounded the alarm bell about regulators launching appeals to re-litigate enforcement proceedings, in a recent decision tossing the corporate cop's appeal in a case against insurer HCF Life.

An appeals court has shot down a challenge to a valuation for the country’s largest solar farm and said the Land Valuation Act should be amended to clarify the definition of an ‘urban purpose.’

An appeals court has upheld a finding that grain exporter Co-operative Bulk Handling responded too late to a $22.6 million payment claim from Martinus Rail, agreeing that the clock started ticking on a Saturday. 

A builder has lost its bid to amend a negligence claim in a dispute over a warehouse refurbishment contract in Sydney’s Homebush. 

A judge has approved a $35 million penalty against HSBC in ASIC’s novel case over the bank's scam protection failures, despite questioning whether the punishment was severe enough given how long the case took to settle.

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.