Contracts

A judge has signed off on a confidential settlement in a class action over off-the-plan homes in a proposed north-west Sydney development, including a clause that prevents group members from making any public statements about the suit or disparaging the parties. 

Two Australian companies who held all the shares in Mirabela Mineração do Brasil’s main asset, the Santa Rita Mine, have successfully argued that a contract variation and their subsequent termination of the sale contract was lawful, in spite of their Brazilian counterparts' late signature. 

Glencore has won a contract to supply Cobalt Blue with up to half of the necessary feedstock to run its new Kwinana cobalt refinery.

In a court fight between engineering firm Clough and its former joint venture partner Elecnor, a judge has questioned Elecnor’s “extremely inconvenient” bid to send Clough’s $54 million cross-claim to arbitration in Singapore.

Financial services firm Monarch Advisory Group has won over $270,000 in damages after two employees who started a new business were found to have breached restraint clauses in their contracts.

Brisbane-based law firm Cooper Grace Ward has lured a corporate law expert from K&L Gates to join its partnership.

A Qube unit and a developer have lost their $20 million claim alleging the Department of Defence failed to properly address asbestos contamination on leased land which was redeveloped into a terminal facility in Moorebank. 

A judge has denied Austin Engineering’s bid for a $210,000 freezing order against a former sales representative, with a judge finding there was an arguable claim for breach of confidence but no evidence of a claim to more than nominal damages. 

Developer Infinity wants to stay a case by liquidators of collapsed developer Crown Group seeking to sell the land for their stalled joint venture for a residential tower in Melbourne’s Southbank.

A Victorian shopping centre has been ordered to pay back $1.5 million to a company that broke a contract for a $30 million land sale.