One of two shareholder class actions against infant food maker Bellamy’s for allegedly misleading investors about its China growth strategy and declining infant formula market share in Australia wants to expand the class definition to include purchasers of equity swaps.
A failed challenge by baby food maker Bellamy’s Australia to a decision rejecting its application to limit legal costs in two class actions was “not strong”, but was not so unreasonable as to put them on the hook for indemnity costs, the Full Federal Court has ruled.
ASIC and other government regulators bringing enforcement action in the docket of one Federal Court judge must abide by a strict new protocol to prevent a repeat of the corporate watchdog’s “wait and see” strategy in a case against ex-Murray Goulburn directors that came close, the judge said, to bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
A judge has refused a bid by two former Murray Goulburn executives to throw out a disqualification case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, despite admonishing the corporate regulator for its delay in bringing the case and establishing a protocol for regulators filing cases in his docket.
Australian drug maker InterPharma will not appeal a ruling that dismissed its challenge to the validity of global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s patent for sedative drug Precedex.
The judge overseeing the Ethicon pelvic mesh class action has flagged serious public policy concerns stemming from class identification problems, amid fears that “poorer” patients in the public health system would be less likely to be notified of their rights compared to those in the private system.
A former Ernst & Young principal jailed for at least nine years for his role in a $135 million tax fraud has lost a challenge to two NSW Supreme Court orders barring access to $150 million worth of assets.
A judge overseeing a settled class action against failed Banksia Securities has rejected an application to limit a contradictor’s investigation of alleged professional misconduct on the part of the legal team and funder behind the case, saying he was satisfied there was a proper basis for the allegations.
A Federal Court judge has expressed disbelief that hundreds of lawsuits are being pursued over allegedly defective pelvic mesh, saying he was “absolutely flummoxed” as to why the law firm leading them hadn’t considered filing a class action.
The liquidators of Plutus Payroll Australia, the company at the heart of a high profile $105 million tax fraud, can determine that claims made during the liquidation by some of its 4,500 workers are not claims of employees and do not need to be prioritised.