Judges

The liquidator for collapsed property developer Monarch Tower has lost its appeal seeking an extension of time to bring voidable transaction claims said to be worth $27 million against 13 individuals and companies.

Green iron startup Element Zero is challenging a bid by Fortescue for access to nine million seized documents in their trade secrets spat, saying its rival has not met the test for proving inadequate discovery of material.

A judge has ordered federal prosecutors to drop a criminal tax fraud case against a medical researcher, finding an ATO officer lied and tampered with evidence during the probe.

Property group Catalyst has won $31.7 million from a trustee corporation of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland over a suite of scuppered transactions for land and aged care homes.

Engineering firm WSP may seek to permanently stay a new suit by Canberra builder Morris Construction that claims it should be on the hook for engineering and design failures by a subsidiary, the latest fight between the parties over a troubled Kingston development. 

Telstra has been ordered to pay $18 million in ACCC proceedings, after a court found the telco misled thousands of broadband customers about the speed of its budget internet provider Belong.

A judge has questioned whether an investor in failed Banksia Securities can bring a case against a court-appointed receiver over his support for a class action settlement later found to involve deception by a team of lawyers. 

Another company is being pulled into a class action over a fatal bus crash in NSW's Hunter Valley, with infrastructure consulting firm AECOM planning a cross-claim against engineering firm GHD Australia.

The receiver for Banksia Securities — the failed lender at the centre of a scandal-ridden class action — has argued a new case accusing him of serious misconduct is vexatious and wants a court to release him from the claims.

The developers of an industrial-chic Melbourne apartment building have won a fight against the building's owners corporation over a lease that allowed Vodafone to store telecommunications equipment on the roof.