The investor behind a failed class action against the Public Trustee of Queensland over the collapse of Octaviar Group has escaped a bid by the Trustee for maximum costs, with a judge ruling the case was not a “nakedly speculative venture” by the funder.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is considering whether a divestment offer by waste management company Bingo Industries will address concerns the regulator has raised about the company’s proposed acquisition of Dial-a-Dump Industries.
Adero Law has filed class actions against labour hire companies Hays and Stellar Personnel on behalf of casual miners who allege they were entitled to accrued leave, on the eve of what’s expected to be a banner year for employment class actions in Australia.
The applicant in a class action against Ford over allegedly defective PowerShift transmissions has taken another stab at bringing an unconscionable conduct claim, after the judge overseeing the case panned an earlier pleading as “problematic”.
Accounting firm Pitcher Partners has been ordered to pay more than $5.6 million in damages for fraudulently concealing an amortisation error that caused a well-known bus operator to face higher than expected costs in a NSW transport tender.
Majority shareholders in MWL Financial have won court approval to bring a derivative suit against US-based Focus Financial Partners over an acquisition gone sour.
In a situation a judge has called “extraordinary and troubling”, Deloitte’s files on failed construction company Hastie — sought as evidence by shareholders in a class action — have vanished from the accounting giant’s locked ‘litigation room’ and are now in the control of a single partner who refuses to return them.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has not ruled out a challenge to a ruling that two Westpac subsidiaries didn’t provide personal financial advice as part of a campaign encouraging customers to roll over external superannuation accounts.
French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has appealed a judge’s ruling denying its bid to block Alphapharm from listing an insulin injector pen on the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme.
Unilever’s allegations that consumer goods competitor Beiersdorf made misleading claims about its Nivea clinical strength deodorant products don’t pass the smell test, a judge has found.