Sustainable tech firm Papyrus Australia has lost its bid to throw out a $750,000 defamation case brought against it by an ex-managing director, which alleges the omission of his name in the company’s 2018 annual report was akin to calling him a liar.
Whether judges can alter the terms of litigation funding agreements in class actions is a question that will remain unsettled for now, after litigation funder IMF Bentham chose to sidestep a lengthy, costly and risky challenge to the reach of the court’s powers.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has considered whether an insured buyer under a warranty and indemnity policy is entitled to indemnity from an insurer when it relied on income and liability warranties in a share sale agreement and those warranties were breached, a case that provides welcome guidance on the contractual interpretation of W&I policies, writes Justin McDonnell and Rebecca LeBherz of King & Wood Mallesons.
The former chief financial officer of Murray Goulburn has asked a judge to relieve him from any disqualification order sought by the corporate watchdog in its case over his alleged role in the milk supplier’s continuous disclosure breaches, saying he is already the subject of orders that ban him from the dairy industry.
Murray Goulburn has agreed to pay $37.5 million to resolve the second of two shareholder class actions over its 2016 profit forecasts, as the $42 million settlement of the first class action is held up over questions about the litigation funder’s commission.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has extended its review of ANZ Terminals’ proposed acquisition of a unit of global agribusiness GrainCorp, after expressed competition concerns about the $350 million tie-up in July.
Quintis founder Frank Wilson has won his bid for unredacted transcripts of ASIC examinations with six former directors of the failed sandalwood company.
A judge’s decision refusing to approve a $42 million settlement in a shareholder class action against Murray Goulburn because of a “too high” funder’s commission has set the stage for a showdown over the power of courts to alter funding agreements, a battle potentially more consequential than the fight over common fund orders now before the High Court.
A judge has briefly stayed his $76.6 million judgment against IOOF subsidiary Australian Executor Trustees over the sale of a timber plantation by the collapsed Gunns Group as AET weighs an appeal of the ruling, which dismissed its cross-claim against law firm Sparke Helmore.
Activist US short seller Bonitas Research is refusing to participate in legal action brought in Australia by Rural Funds Group, as it continues to press allegations of fraud, which sent the agricultural fund manager’s share price plummeting.