Judges

Administrators of collapsed budget airline Bonza have been given two more months to try to sell the company, with the Federal Court finding a sale would be of greater benefit than liquidation to the airline’s 58,428 creditors, who are owed $116 million. 

Seven Network has partially succeeded in appealing a decision that revoked its rights to the ‘7NOW’ trade mark for non-use, with the Full Court finding the broadcaster used the mark on its news promotion website.

While it was unfair for a judge to pick Gilbert + Tobin to run a class action against Jaguar Land Rover on the condition that it lower its funding rate, the judge was entitled to consider the law firm’s experience in a similar case against Toyota, an appeals court has said in its reasons. 

Former Network Ten Lisa Wilkinson in seeking $1.8 million in costs in Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation case over an episode of The Project that aired Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations.

The liquidators of collapsed engineering company Hastie Group have lost their bid to appeal a decision that knocked out half its $120 million case against Multiplex, Lendlease and numerous other builders.

A judge has rejected Aristocrat’s bid for orders requiring competitor Light & Wonder to hand over documents to be placed “in an envelope” for speedy production should its appeal of a decision ordering that it produce the documents to Aristocrat for possible trade secrets suit fail.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has prevailed in its case against payday lenders Cigno and BSF Solutions alleging they provided credit without a licence, with a judge rejecting their argument that their loan model was analogous to buy now, pay later arrangements that don’t require a credit licence.

The auditors of self-managed superannuation funds that clients of Melissa Caddick invested with the Sydney fraudster and her company Maliver have hit back at class action claims, saying the clients have themselves to blame for handing over “direct control” of their funds.

A class action against Toyota alleging it installed diesel defeat devices in several models of its vehicles has lost a bid to access source code for the cars’ emissions control systems, with a judge finding it was not relevant to any current fact in issue. 

A judge has granted leave to law firm Levitt Robinson to challenge a ruling cutting $1.14 million of its fees from a settled class action against retirement home operator Aveo, finding the appeal was sufficiently arguable.