Car giant General Motors, which faces a class action by former Holden franchisees, wants to strip the case of class status, arguing that “idiosyncrasies” in group member claims could result in further lawsuits even after a judgment in the case.
Two law firms running competing class actions against insurance giant Allianz have dropped a plan to resolve the duplication by jointly running just one of the cases, opting for consolidation instead.
Four executives of the failed Arrium have named auditor KPMG as a “concurrent wrongdoer” in defending a shareholder class action over a $754 million capital raising two years prior to the mining and steel giant’s $2 billion collapse.
A Victoria Supreme Court judge weighing for the first time an application by a law firm for a percentage cut of recoveries in class actions has been told to reject the bid because group members would fare better under the firm’s current no win, no fee funding arrangement.
Dairy co-operative Fonterra has lost a bid to keep the company’s name out of the domain of a website to be set up for a class action brought by farmers alleging they were unlawfully underpaid when Fonterra slashed milk prices and sought a “clawback” in 2016.
The stage is set for a beauty parade of two shareholder class actions against Freedom Foods and Deloitte, and the judge overseeing the cases has embraced the recommendation of the High Court to appoint an independent barrister to represent group members in the contest.
Crown Resorts will fight to strike out allegations in a class action that the casino operator was liable for “oppressive conduct” under the Corporations Act, saying there was no legal basis for making the claims and no articulation by the class as to how the company engaged in the conduct.
The judge overseeing the first ever bid for a group costs order in a class action that will give the plaintiff’s law firm a percentage cut of the proceeds has urged the firm to rethink characterising its own solicitor as an expert.
A judge has ordered the applicant in a shareholder class action against former Arrium directors and KPMG over allegedly misleading statements made ahead of Arrium’s $754 million capital raising in 2014 to explain how the amount by which the mining company’s assets were allegedly overvalued was calculated.
A group of car dealers has hit a unit of car giant General Motors with a class action for allegedly breaching its contract by retiring the Holden brand in Australia last year.