Awaiting judgment in Federal Court class actions by shareholders over its money laundering risk disclosures, the Commonwealth Bank will ask the court to reopen the case to consider the relevance of two recent decisions that found shareholders in other class actions had failed to prove loss.
The country’s most experienced class action law firm won two and lost two in last year’s beauty parades before the courts, showing track record is not everything when it comes to winning carriage of cases and that picking the winner can be a tricky business. From line-ball decisions to law firm team-ups and the lowest contingency fee order yet, here’s how 2023’s class action contests went down.
Over three years into a class action against failed asset finance lender Axsesstoday and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers over a $50 million prospectus, the applicant has won the green light to add four insurers to the case.
New Zealand construction giant Fletcher Building has hit back at a shareholder class action over allegedly misleading forecasts for the 2017 financial year, saying some of the claims under New Zealand law were brought out of time.
A judge has dismissed a securities class action against Insignia Financial, formerly known as IOOF, in the second judgement in two days to find no loss to shareholders.
A judge has approved a 24 per cent group costs order in a consolidated class action against a2 Milk, noting the complexity of the claims against the dairy giant and saying a GCO would align the class action lawyers’ interests with group members’.
Noumi has largely lost its bid to shield from a class action parts of its inhouse counsel’s evidence supporting a privilege claim over 3,000 documents seen by Ashurst and PricewaterhouseCoopers during an investigation into the company’s financial position.
Worley contravened the Corporations Act a decade ago when it failed to correct 2014 earnings guidance for several months, but shareholders in a long-running class action against the engineering services company have failed to prove the breach caused any loss, a judge has found.
The funders that bankrolled a securities class action against collapsed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson will ask the court to give them an $8 million cut of a $40 million settlement. A further $12 million in legal fees means shareholders will get 50 per cent of the settlement sum.
The corporate regulator has brought proceedings against EverBlu Capital and Creso Pharma director Adam Blumenthal, alleging market rigging and breaches of duty, and has accepted an undertaking by the stockbroker that he will quit his involvement in financial services for the next five years.