Construction

The High Court won’t hear an appeal in a case by Acciona and Ferrovial against three insurers over coverage for loss and damage resulting from heavy rainfall at the site of construction of the Pacific Highway in northern New South Wales.

Two law firms that have been jointly running a class action against the NSW government over light rail construction in Sydney are now competing to run the case solo, after their relationship broke down and the funder lost confidence in one of the firms, a court has heard.

A disgruntled client who accused a Sydney-based law firm of running a “woefully prepared” case has lost his appeal of a judge’s rejection of his bid for a $225,000 personal costs order against the firm.

A judge has hit BlueScope Steel with a $57.5 million penalty for engaging in attempted cartel conduct and ordered a former executive to personally pay a $575,000 penalty.

NAB will fight a bid by a $78 million class action over the collapse of Walton Construction to add serious fraud allegations in the four-year-old case, which a judge said has been “mired in a procedural mess”.

The University of Sydney has lost a bid to amend its claims against a consultant in litigation over allegedly defective building work carried out on its Charles Perkins Centre in Camperdown.

Developer CHP Group has accused real estate agency Maison Global of having a conflict of interest while selling apartments in Sydney Olympic Park’s latest high-rise the Boomerang building due to a separate arrangement with a different developer. 

A Star Entertainment joint venture has been hit with a lawsuit by the Queensland arm of Multiplex Constructions over alleged costs overruns in the construction for a multi-billion-dollar resort in Brisbane. 

A traditional custodian has taken Woodside Energy to court in a bid to halt offshore seismic blasting for its Scarborough gas project, in a legal challenge similar to one that put Santos’ $4.7 billion Barossa project on ice.

A Deloitte partner has brought legal action against a Sydney builder over variations to a $1.5 million contract to renovate his house in the waterfront suburb of Balmain, claiming the increases were meant as “cash support” for the construction business.