Judges

Before the decision in the Brambles case this week -- the first shareholder class action to succeed at trial -- the path to proving loss from disclosure breaches was a thicket of, well, brambles. Now after six consecutive losses, Justice Bernard Murphy has paved the way for plaintiffs to prevail.

Mastercard has hit back at the ACCC’s claims that it sought to prevent competition with EFTPOS through strategic agreements with large retailers, saying the deals were struck for “benign and pro-competitive” reasons. 

A long-running class action over the construction of the Sydney light rail that was revived by the High Court is heading to mediation, with a judge noting the challenges that lie ahead in determining all the claims of group members if the parties don't settle.

In the first shareholder class action to succeed at trial in Australia, a judge has found logistics chain company Brambles breached its continuous disclosure obligations in relation to an overly rosy 2017 financial forecast amid problems with its North American pallets business.

Mastercard made ‘strategic’ agreements with large retailers like Coles and David Jones to keep them from routing through EFTPOS, offering discounted exchange rates that left smaller businesses footing the bill, the ACCC told the court on the first day of trial.

The Full Court has found that a pleading error in an underpayments class action against The Reject Shop which left it empty of group members can be fixed but that the amended pleading cannot be backdated.

The funder that's backing a class action over land compulsorily acquired for Sydney's WestConnex road project has been ordered to pay security in satellite proceedings seeking to claw back $1.4 million in costs from the lead applicants.

A self-disclosed error in modelling by the law firm that ran a class action against Hino Motors has cost the firm an even deeper cut to its payout than the $6 million lopped off its settlement share last year.

Queensland developer York Property has lost its appeal of a ruling that held an adjudicator erred in finding $4.7 million in costs over alleged façade defects should be deducted from amounts owed in a payments spat with a builder Tomkins. 

A deed of company arrangement for three companies associated with developer Descon-Adcon has fallen apart after former boss Danny Isaac failed to make a $5 million contribution required under the rescue plan.