Justice Jacqueline Gleeson

The High Court has refused to throw out a personal injury case over 55-year-old child sexual abuse claims, despite the death of the alleged perpetrator and most relevant witnesses, saying a permanent stay is a “measure of last resort”. 

The High Court has granted defunct online educator Captain Cook College special leave to appeal a finding that it engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct by enrolling thousands of unsuitable students, who accrued $60 million in debt but never finished their courses. 

A judge has declined to hear an interlocutory stoush about the scope of a shareholder class action against engineering company Worley before an upcoming trial, saying the case, which has been on foot since 2015 and was appealed to the High Court, needed “some finality”. 

The High Court has denied Clive Palmer leave to appeal successive court decisions which found his company Mineralogy’s royalties dispute with mining company Adani should be determined through a dispute resolution process rather than in court.

The High Court has ruled that the buyer of a well-known Sydney hotel was not entitled to repudiate the purchase agreement because of the hotel’s compliance with restrictions on public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the operation of the business.

The High Court has turned down the appeal of the former Blue Star Helium CEO who was hit with a $40,000 penalty and four-year ban after the company failed to disclose to shareholders the identity of the buyer behind a botched sale of Texas oil assets.

Google has won its appeal of a judgment awarded to gangland lawyer George Defteros that found the tech giant liable for linking to an allegedly defamatory article, with the High Court finding Google was not the publisher of the story.

The High Court has reinstated a $435,000 judgment awarded to a former lawyer who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder while working for the Special Sexual Offences unit in Victoria’s Office of Public Prosecutions.

Engineering company Worley is challenging an appeals court ruling that allowed a shareholder class action against it to continue, arguing the Full Court’s finding that opinions which “ought reasonably to have been held” should be disclosed to shareholders would lead to “absurd consequences”.

The ATO has won a legal challenge over when it can claim tax from trust income, with the High Court finding beneficiaries cannot “retrospectively expunge” their entitlements to the proceeds of a trust despite the potential “unfairness” this creates.