Embattled dam operators Seqwater and Sunwater, along with the State of Queensland, have been hit with costs in a class action over the 2011 floods that destroyed 2,000 homes and claimed 12 lives.
A judge has set aside the pleadings in ASIC’s case accusing a Worrells liquidator of aiding and abetting the illegal phoenix activity of collapsed Queensland property investment advisor Members Alliance Group, saying he is entitled to a “coherent pleading”.
The High Court majority’s reasoning in the decision nixing common fund orders at an early stage of a class action leads “inexorably and inevitably” to the conclusion that there is no power to make such an order at any time in a proceeding, counsel for 7-Eleven has told an appeals court.
A contradictor appointed in two class actions against 7-Eleven will argue before the Full Federal Court that the court has power both in equity and under the Federal Court of Australia Act to make common fund orders in class actions on settlement or judgment.
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.
Over-the-counter derivative issuers AGM Markets, OT Markets and Oxifin Tech have been ordered to pay a total of $75 million in penalties after a ruling that they engaged in unconscionable conduct causing losses of over $30 million to unsophisticated investors seeking what a judge called “financial heroin hits”.
A media report about Google’s location data privacy disclosures that set off investigations by consumer regulators in Australia and the US triggered crisis talks by senior executives of the search engine giant referred to as the ‘Oh shit meeting’, a court has been told.
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.
Dam operator Sunwater wants evidence from Maurice Blackburn, the law firm behind the landmark Queensland flood class action, showing how the applicant will calculate aggregate damages for around 6,800 group members.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has lost its appeal of a ruling that found Woolworths’ environmental claims for its ‘Select Eco’ line of compostable plates, bowls and cutlery were accurate, not false and misleading.