Energy & Natural Resources

A judge will allow the erstwhile funder of a settled underpayments class action against recruitment agency Hays to argue it should be allowed to recover against group members who signed a funding agreement several years ago, but said the claim was “not worth spending a vast amount of money on” and warned the funder against turning the case into a “circus”.

ASIC has banned mining magnate Joseph ‘Diamond Joe’ Gutnick from managing corporations for four years because of his involvement in three companies that went under owing at least $43 million to creditors. 

Labour hire company Hays Specialist Recruitment has agreed to pay up to $1.325 million to settle an employment class action on behalf of coal miners that has been on foot for five years.

The Full Federal Court has found a native title tribunal failed to consider climate change when making a finding in relation to four new petroleum production leases for Santos’ Narrabri gas project in New South Wales.

US digital giant Meta has lost its challenge to registration of the trade mark ‘Ausface’ by Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy, with a delegate saying the chance of consumers confusing the mark with Meta’s Facebook was a “mere possibility”.

Downer EDI has named KPMG in a cross-claim in a class action by shareholders, a move the accounting giant says has forced it to resign as auditor for the infrastructure services company.

A judge has allowed Slater & Gordon to adjourn a fight about security for costs in a shareholder class action against Beach Energy until it has more favourable evidence of its debt financing position, over the energy company’s objection to the “doctrinally unprecedented” application.

The applicant in a competition class action against AGL Energy has failed to find another funder to back the case after the original funder that bankrolled the case withdrew its support.

Beach Energy is fighting a bid to adjourn a fight about security for costs in a shareholder class action until the firm that’s running it has more favourable evidence of its debt financing position, saying the application is “doctrinally unprecedented.”

Queensland power company Stanwell has flagged a possible ‘no case to answer’ submission in an upcoming competition class action trial that would seek to shut the case down mid-trial, with a judge saying it was “highly unlikely” to succeed.