Judgment

The High Court killed off all common fund orders, not just the kind sought at the start of a class action, a judge has said as he cut in half the payout for a litigation funder bankrolling two franchisee class actions against 7-Eleven.

A judge has blessed a law firm’s $16.6 million legal bill for running two franchisee class actions against 7-Eleven despite a contradictor’s argument that it had a “troubling” practice of deferring its fees to benefit the funder that bankrolled the cases. 

Asset Energy has won Federal Court review of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision not to grant a two-year extension of a controversial offshore exploration license, after the government conceded that Morrison’s decision was “infected by apprehended bias.”

US tool giant Illinois Tool Works has defeated an appeal to a ruling that found Australian tool company Airco infringed it patent for a fuel cell designed for use in combustion tools.

The founding director of Perth-based exploration company Legacy Iron Ore Limited has been hit with a suspended sentence of three years imprisonment for stealing over $720,000 from the company.

Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel and three other Palmer-related entities have been ordered to pay $44.5 million (US$30.8 million) to litigation funder Vannin Capital for defaulting on a loan for a private jet.

Melbourne craft beer producer Brick Lane Brewing has lost its lawsuit accusing three companies behind the zero carb Better Beer of ripping off its packaging in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.

Crown Melbourne has lost a bid to patent a modified roulette game intended to bridge the gap between the European and American versions of the game, with IP Australia finding the invention does not constitute a manner of manufacture.

Liquidators for collapsed forestry giant Gunns Plantations have lost a High Court appeal over $1.2 million in payments to a former supplier that confirmed the so-called peak indebtedness rule does not apply in Australian insolvency law.

Uber has won a strike-out bid in a lawsuit by drivers challenging their classification as independent contractors, with a judge finding the pleading was “self-evidently, uncommonly and irretrievably deficient.”