Car dealers bringing a $650 million lawsuit against Mercedes over its decision to move to a fixed-price agency model are seeking to access legal advice given to the car manufacturer on non-renewal notices at the heart of the case.
A Hong Hong-based developer has accused HWL Ebsworth of failing to advise that by using a foreign-domiciled vehicle to purchase a share in a lender that provided mortgages to overseas buyers in two of Melbourne’s biggest developments it would subject the mortgages to Foreign Investment Review Board review.
A court has directed a senior barrister acting in a $650 million lawsuit against Mercedes-Benz to “tear up” a letter his instructing solicitors sent concerning the judge’s ownership of a Mercedes vehicle, and said he was “surprised” the counsel signed off on it.
A judge has declined to pass on a senior barrister’s $18,000 cancellation fee as part of an adverse costs order for a vacated trial, noting that such fees are not standard or common practice.
Mercedes can’t access communications between Australia’s peak body for car dealers and a Labor senator to use in its defence of a $650 million lawsuit over its decision to move to a fixed-price agency model.
Officials at the Mercedes-Benz Australia head office referred to car dealers as “baby piglets” in internal communications and threatened and bullied the retailers, a trial court has been told in a $650 million lawsuit over the car maker’s decision to move to a fixed-price agency model.
Chinese construction and engineering firm BCEG has won a $12 million lawsuit against two former directors of an Australian subsidiary after they allegedly swindled millions from the company to fund their own developments and buy a luxury apartment.
Although the settlement sum has not been disclosed, court documents in the Opal Tower class action reveal the litigation funder backing the case will seek $13.2 million in commission when the parties appear before the court later this year.
A judge has signed off on the discontinuance of two class actions against Canberra property developers for allegedly misleading investors about GST on their apartments, after the High Court declined to review a ruling that made the cases “uneconomic” for the funder to pursue.
AIG can’t force investment firm Sayers to hand over communications over which it claimed legal professional privilege, with a judge rejecting the argument that Sayers could not “cherry pick” which advice it disclosed after waiving privilege over advice given by two barristers in 2017 and 2019.