The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has won its bid to appoint liquidators to solvent landbanking company Aviation 3030, with a judge saying ASIC’s public-interest case for the scheme’s winding up was “overwhelming”.
A name partner at law firm Tucker & Cowen and the firm itself have lost their bid for summary dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the receiver of failed fund manager Equititrust seeking to recover $17.5 million allegedly acquired through deceptive means.
A judge has rejected a claim of legal privilege over emails at the centre of a copyright lawsuit over a puppet-show parody of the 80s sitcom Golden Girls, a production that has spawned legal action between the collaborators in New York and Australia.
The Chief Justice of the Federal Court wants four referees to weigh what’s expected to be voluminous expert evidence in three class actions against the Commonwealth of Australia over exposure to allegedly toxic foam used on a government military bases, saying with 60 class actions pending in the Federal Court, devoting a single judge to the case for months on end should be a “mechanism of last resort”.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission wants to add GetSwift’s former inhouse lawyer as a respondent in its enforcement action against the logistics company, as debate rages over whether a class action against the company should be postponed.
The Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions has told the Federal Court it will “very significantly” reduce the number of criminal charges laid against mobility equipment supplier Country Care Group as the landmark cartel case heads to trial in October.
Industry group Meat & Livestock Australia is challenging a ruling allowing US company Branhaven’s cow genome patent to proceed, after a judge called the group’s challenge to Branhaven’s amendments to the patent “bizarre” and “flimsy”.
Maurice Blackburn has not given up its fight with the Australian Taxation Office over a multimillion dollar tax liability on record-setting class action payout for Black Saturday bushfire victims.
The Australian chapter of biker group the Hells Angels has mostly come up short in its wide-ranging intellectual property lawsuit against online marketplace Redbubble. But the judge that heard the case may have opened the door for more IP lawsuits against the print-on-demand site by shooting down its claims that its not a seller but merely a platform for artists and consumers to engage.
A judge has rejected a motion by the NSW government and 15 local health districts to shut down a class action by the relatives of overseas patients who were forced to serve as guarantors and hit with hospital bills worth tens of thousands of dollars.