A judge has approved a confidential settlement in a class action on behalf of 383 apartment owners in Sydney’s Opal Tower but slashed the amount sought by the funder.
The litigation funder bankrolling a class action on behalf of 383 apartment owners in Sydney’s troubled Opal Tower is seeking a 26 per cent commission totalling $13.2 million of the confidential settlement sum, a court has heard.
Although the settlement sum has not been disclosed, court documents in the Opal Tower class action reveal the litigation funder backing the case will seek $13.2 million in commission when the parties appear before the court later this year.
A long-running class action over the Opal Tower disaster has settled, along with two related cases over the defective building, as a five-week trial was set to begin.
The structural engineer behind Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower can examine whether builder Icon Co has been indemnified for $31 million worth of damage which occurred in the 36-storey apartment block on Christmas Eve of 2018, a court has found.
Prefab concrete company Evolution Precast Systems failed to install reinforced concrete in Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower and knew about a prior failure with one of the building’s panels, engineer WSP Structures alleges in a cross-claim lobbed in a class action on behalf of residents of the tower.
Third-party liability insurers may become the latest parties to be dragged into a complex class action over alleged defects in Sydney’s Opal Tower, which has has spawned six cross-claims so far.
Opal Tower builder Icon and structural engineer WSP Structures have been joined as defendants in a class action brought by property owners, who have also added a slew of consumer law claims to the complex proceedings.
A judge has suggested hearing the long-running class action over the Opal Tower disaster as early as the first quarter of next year, as the court juggles three concurrent lawsuits and a slew of cross-claims over the doomed building.
The Opal Tower owners’ corporation has opted out of a class action seeking compensation on behalf of hundreds of apartment owners in the scandal-plagued building.