The High Court has set a date for handing down its keenly anticipated judgment in a case that challenged the winner of a beauty contest of class actions against AMP, a decision expected to offer guidance on how courts should tackle the so-called multiplicity problem.
Further attempts to settle a securities class action against last mile logistics software firm GetSwift would be like flogging a dead horse, a judge has heard as the matter works its way towards a final hearing.
GetSwift has been criticised for its “quite unfair attack” on a Federal Court judge who refused to disqualify himself from hearing a shareholder class action against the logistics software company after presiding over ASIC’s civil penalty proceeding against the company.
A judge has ordered buffet restaurant pioneer Sizzler to amend its pleadings in a trade mark stoush with Brisbane-based restaurant Burger Urge to bring them in line with a summary judgment application that includes sandwiches among the classes of allegedly infringed goods.
Former solicitor general Justin Gleeson SC has been appointed contradictor in GetSwift’s battle to have the judge overseeing a shareholder class action disqualify himself from the proceedings after overseeing the trial in ASIC’s case against the logistics provider.
Property developer Grocon has “reluctantly” put its construction business into administration, blaming the NSW government’s handling of the Central Barangaroo development project which has sparked a $270 million lawsuit in the NSW Supreme Court.
The High Court has ruled that a patentee’s rights to control what can be done with a patented product after it is sold are “exhausted” upon sale.
That a first filed case should be the presumptive winner in a competition between class actions seemed a losing argument before the High Court on Tuesday as the justices weighed a challenge to a ruling picking one among a group of class actions against AMP, but the court also appeared skeptical of the power to hold wide ranging inquiries into the merits of competing cases.
The eyes of class action lawyers will be on the High Court Tuesday as it hears arguments over a judge’s power to choose a single class action among competing proceedings and what, if anything, should be made of a case’s funding structure and likely returns to group members when picking a winner.
Luxury car maker BMW has told the NSW Court of Appeal that the courts do not have power to make common fund orders at any stage of a group proceeding, arguing that such orders would distort the scope of the class action regime by encouraging litigation funders to pursue lawsuits.