A ruling by a judge deciding a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against AMP is expected this week, a judgment significant not just because it is the first time a court in Australia has been asked to choose among so many competing representative cases.
US hedge fund Oaktree Capital has placed fund manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments into receivership, following a tumultuous period marked by the loss of senior executives and three shareholder class action investigations amid concerns about the company’s method for valuing its assets under management.
The applicants in the Iluka Resources investor class action have just 14 days to sort out their funding troubles and provide a $1.25 million security, as a judge warns he will not be able to hold their trial date any longer.
The writing may be on the wall for common fund orders in class actions that put all unregistered group members on the hook for a litigation funder’s commission, after the High Court agreed Wednesday to take up landmark challenges by Westpac and BMW, experts say.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has dropped its probe into Blue Sky over possible violations of its continuous disclosure obligations, but the fund manager still faces three active shareholder class action investigations.
The High Court has granted applications by Westpac and BMW to weigh in on the validity of common fund orders made in class actions, a decision that could have major ramifications for the way representative proceedings are funded.
Ratepayers in a class action against a Queensland city council calling for the recovery of an invalid levy on their land failed in their bid to summarily dismiss the council’s defence that the unreturned portion of the charges was spent for their benefit.
A judge has signed off on the lead applicants’ bid to expand the current group definition in a class action against Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon over allegedly defective vaginal mesh products, saying there was “no reason in logic” why the request should be denied.
The sought-after commission at the centre of an unsuccessful common fund application in a class action over the use of toxic foam at a RAAF base near Katherine, NT has been revealed as 15% of any gross recovery in the case plus up to three and a half times the funder’s costs.
A judge has tossed an application for a common fund order in a class action over the use of toxic foam on a RAAF base near Katherine, NT after a barrister for the lead applicants said the bid would be withdrawn if the judge appointed an independent “contradictor” to scrutinise the proposed funding structure.