âHundreds of lawyersâ could overwhelm Microsoft Teams if German cladding manufacturer 3A Composites continues adding cross-claimants in a class action over highly flammable building materials, a court has heard.
A $78 million class action against National Australia Bank and Walton Construction seeking compensation for sub-contractors after the company’s collapse has halted as lawyers scramble to comply with the managed investment scheme requirements for funded class actions implemented by the Morrison government.
A judge hearing a price-fixing case against steel giant BlueScope has overruled an objection to the ACCCs barrister’s allegedly excessive “eye-rolling” and “scathing and sarcastic” manner during a cross-examination in which the company’s general manager was accused of lying under oath.
The secretary of the NSW branch of the CFMEU and his branch manager son have been hit with a corruption charges over allegations they accepted payments from a Sydney building company in exchange for preferential treatment.
Boral has denied that shareholders bringing two class actions against it over financial irregularities in its North America windows business suffered any loss, saying that its systems helped spot and prevent the financial manipulation from continuing.
Prefab concrete company Evolution Precast Systems failed to install reinforced concrete in Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower and knew about a prior failure with one of the building’s panels, engineer WSP Structures alleges in a cross-claim lobbed in a class action on behalf of residents of the tower.
BlueScope Steel general manager Jason Ellis wanted no record kept of a meeting with four of the company’s competing steel distributors and warned his national sales manager to keep the talks under wraps, a court hearing the ACCC’s price-fixing case was told on Thursday. Â
BlueScope has labelled “delusional” an argument by the competition regulator that alleged correspondence from a distributor about the steel companyâs suggested higher prices was evidence of price-fixing.
Steel maker Bluescopeâs claim that it didn’t engage in cartel conduct because it only encouraged distributors to set a price for its products would “eviscerate” cartel laws, the ACCC has told a court.
Criminal cartel charges against the CFMEU and its ACT branch secretary have been dropped amid concerns about witnesses’ ability to recall the events at the centre of the case, two months after witness credibility concerns led to a stinging defeat for the ACCC in the Country Care criminal cartel trial.