Justice Brigitte Markovic

Carnival PLC has denied that a passenger, whose husband contracted COVID-19 and had to be put on a ventilator, had a “horrible” time aboard the ill-fated Ruby Princess, in a class action’s appeal of a finding that she was only entitled to $4,000 in damages.

A class action against Carnival over a COVID-19 outbreak aboard its Ruby Princess cruise ship has told the Full Court the lead applicant is entitled to damages “far in excess” of the $4,000 awarded by the trial judge for distress and disappointment.

Cruise operator Carnival PLC has mounted a cross-appeal aimed at overturning a judge’s finding that it negligently failed to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak aboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship, telling the Full Court that the primary judge’s findings were not consistent with his reasons.

Fortescue has rejected Element Zero’s “implausible” claims that the start-up’s founder was instructed by the mining giant’s IP manager to access and delete certain documents after his resignation, as it defends allegations that search orders it won over the alleged misappropriation of its confidential information were based on weak evidence.

Start-up Element Zero has attacked search orders won by Fortescue over the alleged misappropriation of the mining company’s confidential information by three former employees, calling the orders an “industrial scale forensic debacle” won on weak evidence and the failure to disclose material information.

A judge appears reluctant to allow Element Zero to cross-examine an external lawyer hired by mining company Fortescue over alleged “egregious material non-disclosure” during Fortescue’s bid for “extreme and unorthodox” search orders against the green startup’s founders.

A judge has approved a $8.25 million settlement in a class action against PricewaterhouseCoopers brought by Axsesstoday bondholders over an allegedly misleading bond prospectus.

Mining company Fortescue, which alleges green iron startup Element Zero misused confidential information, is fighting a bid to cross-examine its external lawyer as part of an application to quash search orders.

Seeking to quash search orders won by metals company Fortescue against former employees who founded a green iron rival, a lawyer for the start-up has said three terabytes of data were indiscriminately copied, including confidential, privileged and irrelevant material.

Metal mining company Fortescue hired private investigators to spy on former employees who created green iron start-up Element Zero, sifting through their mail, taking photos of their children and following them to Kmart, a court has heard.