Piper Alderman

Two firms representing some Rio Tinto shareholders have lost their bid to intervene in Energy Resources’ fight to renew its lease for the Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory.

The Hawthorn Football Club has denied racial discrimination claims by former player Cyril Rioli and others, including that it advised another player that his wife should terminate her pregnancy.

Citing the significant time and costs invested in the litigation, the applicant in the second filed class action over the collapse of Quintis wants his half of a $4.37 million settlement with the sandalwood producer to fund ongoing costs in what remains of the case.

Convenience store chain On the Run is mulling proceedings against United Petroleum, which allegedly paid $120,000 to a public relations firm to run a “misleading” ad campaign accusing it of wage theft. 

Isuzu is the latest car maker to be stung with a class action for allegedly using defeat devices to cheat on emissions tests, and many more car makers may find themselves in the crosshairs over the “common practice”.

A $13.5 million settlement has been reached in a Gadens-led class action against former Quintis director Frank Wilson, and the funder of a rival class action is preparing to seek a chunk of the sum in what a judge has called a “most unusual circumstance”.

A judge has ordered public relations firm the Civic Partnership to hand over documents revealing the identity of the client behind an allegedly misleading ad campaign accusing convenience store chain On The Run of wage theft.

Two judges have declined to award carriage of a class action against International Capital Markets over risky derivative products to a firm accused of plagiarising its rivals’ pleading.

A Gadens-led class action against former Quintis director Frank Wilson has settled, but a second class action filed by a rival firm has flagged a potential claim on the settlement funds over a cause of action said to have been “picked up parasitically”. 

Keybridge Capital chief executive officer Nicholas Bolton has lost his appeal of a costs review panel decision that saddled him with a legal bill of $308,940 for work done by Atanaskovic Hartnell for his company in a dispute with Brookfield Multiplex.