A judge has expressed skepticism at claims by accounting firm Pitcher Partners that the lead applicant of a now dropped class action over its auditing advice to Slater & Gordon should be hit with indemnity costs for discontinuing the case.
Johnson Winter & Slattery persisted with a shareholder class action over auditing advice given to Slater & Gordon despite concerns about the strength of the claims raised in late 2017, Pitcher Partners has told the Federal Court as it seeks indemnity costs for the now abandoned proceeding.
Botox maker Allergan has lost a lawsuit that accused an Australian cosmetics company that sells topical creams as an alternative to Botox injections of infringing its Botox trade mark.
Maurice Blackburn is looking at potentially expanding its shareholder class action against Crown Resorts after it emerged at the NSW gaming authority inquiry that the casino giant may have breached anti-money laundering laws.
Real estate investment giant Cromwell Property Group will not get the court’s help in pursuing a case of “unlawful association” against its largest shareholder, Singapore-based ARA Group, which has made a $518 million hostile takeover bid, and the family of Chinese billionaire Gordon Tang.
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Arnold Bloch Leibler seeking to use information from its legal work on Slater & Gordon’s $1.2 billion acquisition of UK firm Quindell to defend itself in a class action brought by the plaintiffs firm’s shareholders.
Professional services firm EY UK has been added as a respondent in a shareholder class action against Pitcher Partners over advice given to law firm Slater and Gordon in its disastrous $1.3 billion acquisition of the UK-based Quindell in 2015, almost two years after the class action was filed.
Pitcher Partners says the lead applicant in a discontinued class action over its auditing of Slater and Gordon should cover the costs for cross-claims it brought against nine parties, including the law firm and several of its former directors.
Lawyer Alex Elliott was complicit in a plan by his late father to mislead the court and group members in the Banksia class action, to conceal conflicts of interest and to profit from the case at the expense of debenture holders, a judge has been told.
Viagogo has been ordered to pay a $7 million penalty for misleading customers into thinking the ticket reseller was an official vendor and failing to disclose booking fees of around 28 per cent.