Judges

The owner of a major coal power station in Western Australia has lost its bid for an inquiry into alleged misconduct by the receivers of collapsed Griffin Coal after they tried to avoid obligations under coal supply agreements, with a judge saying the allegations were “relatively trivial”. 

Cargill has won a trade mark infringement case against a company that a judge said appeared to be operating an “internet scam” to intercept a $10 million payment to the multinational food company.

The lead applicant in a class action against former Commonwealth Bank of Australia subsidiary Count Financial has settled individual claims in the case, which alleges the financial advisory firm charged fees for no service.

Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann has yet to engage lawyers to pursue his appeal of a judge’s finding that he raped colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, but while he has the right to represent himself, experts have told Lawyerly it would be “very unwise” for him to run the case on his own.

A judge has ordered SkyCity to pay a $67 million penalty in AUSTRAC’s case alleging it allowed $4 billion in suspicious transactions, finding it was an “appropriate” sum, even when compared with the $450 million fine handed to Crown last July.

A three-year court battle over PepsiCo’s Monster Munch trade mark has been resolved, with Monster Energy negotiating the removal of some beverage products that would have been covered by the mark.C

The founders of streetwear retailer City Beach have won a fight with the ATO over the taxation of a $52 million disposal of pre-capital gains tax assets.

A judge has warned two law firms competing to run a class action against IC Markets over risky contracts-for-difference that it will be held against them if they take a “holding position” on their funding proposals and attempt to negotiate their bids down later.

The judge overseeing a six-year-old class action against BHP over the collapse of a Brazilian dam has allowed the applicant to retroactively amend the group definition, accepting that a pleading mistake was contrary to the intended class membership in the case.

A former Ernst & Young partner has claimed privilege against exposure to penalty and is seeking orders to avoid filing a defence in proceedings by the Australian Taxation Office alleging he promoted tax exploitation schemes.