Judges

Four former directors of funeral insurance firm Youpla Group have agreed to settle ASIC claims that they breached their directors duties, with a judge allowed remaining claims against former CEO Bryn Jones to head to trial. 

BHP and Rio Tinto have told a court that the claims of thousands of women who allegedly experienced workplace sexual harassment and discrimination should not be brought as class actions.

A judge has allowed a novel negligence claim in a class action over the NSW Liberal Party’s failure to lodge paperwork for local candidates, saying a High Court ruling that rejected a duty of care to protect against economic loss did not doom the claim. 

Electronics maker Hisense has won an appeal of a finding that it breached the Fair Work Act by failing to provide a worker with an employment contract, with a judge ruling the Act did no prescribe the form in which employment details must be kept.

The developer of a $50 million apartment complex in Brisbane’s West End has lost its bid to add a new claim to its case against builder Devine, with a judge saying the developer was attempting to tell a “fundamentally different story” to the existing case, weeks out from trial.

An adjudicator's decision in favour of A1 Home Builders for work done on a residential property has been declared void after a court found that a crucial notice had been sent to a misspelled email address. 

Zoetis has been ordered to pay Scidera’s costs of defending an unsuccessful summary dismissal application on a lump sum basis in a dispute over a bovine gene patent, with a judge rejecting its “premature” bid for a set-off. 

An appeals court has handed BHP a win in a dispute with Aquila Steel over the boundary between their neighbouring mining tenements, rejecting Aquila’s “fanciful” argument about the construction of a 58-year-old document.

A Queensland hospital has lost its bid for the costs of court proceedings against a former executive, with a judge citing an “unfair and unreasonable” press release it published about the case.

Gold producer Black Cat has won orders for the ASX to produce documents relating to the identity of brokers involved in bids for company shares, with a judge finding it may have claims for market manipulation.