BMW Australia plans to challenge the NSW Supreme Court’s power to create a common fund order spanning six class actions brought against major players in the automotive industry over defective and dangerous Takata air bags.
Mortgage aggregator Connective Group has lost an appeal of a ruling that gave the greenlight to a shareholder’s derivative lawsuit against company directors and Macquarie Bank over the sale of 25 percent of the business to the bank.
Spanish construction company TĂ©cnicas Reunidas can’t block two Pinsent Masons solicitors, formerly with Norton Rose, from representing Downer EDI Engineering in an ICC arbitration between the two companies, with an appeals court saying unanswered emails provided sufficient proof a retainer had been terminated.
AMP has prevailed in a hard-fought fight over where it will defend five shareholder class actions brought in the wake of the Banking Royal Commission, in a precedent-setting judgement that provides a road map for future jurisdictional battles over competing class actions.
Six major car companies indicated Tuesday they were open to a quick settlement of class actions brought on behalf of potentially hundreds of thousands of Australian drivers whose cars were fitted with defective and deadly Takata airbags.
Embattled financial giant AMP on Tuesday criticised concerns raised by lawyers for the federal class actions about group members’ opt out rights, saying the concerns were a “red herring” in the fight against an order transferring their cases to the NSW Supreme Court.
AMP has slammed arguments that group members in four Federal Court class actions could face a jurisdictional limitation on their claims of disclosure breaches if their cases are transferred to state court, saying no such disadvantage exists.
The Federal Court offers group members in the shareholder class actions against AMP a major legal advantage over the NSW Supreme Court, lawyers for the federal cases have argued ahead of a hearing in the controversial jurisdictional battle.
The Full Federal Court expressed doubts Tuesday about an “unusual” and “heavy handed” order restraining lawyers leading the stayed class actions against GetSwift from advising their clients about whether to opt out of the prevailing action.
The judge overseeing the GetSwift class action proceedings was bent on picking a winner from the outset and should be removed from the case for rehearing, a barrister for one of the losing law firms told the Full Federal Court Monday.