New South Wales

A director at office leasing company Cushman & Wakefield who accepted a job with a competitor has lost a bid to lift an injunction keeping her on garden leave for three months, with a judge finding she was the “author of her own misfortune” for failing to read her employment contract.

An appeals court has dismissed a challenge in a lengthy legal drama between the children of one of Australia’s richest families, finding that a lawsuit over $200 million in Lendlease purchase options was not brought in good faith.

A judge has questioned a bid by cruise operator Scenic Tours to water down a class action brought over a series of European cruises that went ahead in 2018 despite a record-breaking drought that saw river levels drop so low they became impassable.

A class action against KPMG and nine former Gunns Plantations directors over the failure of six managed investment schemes for eucalyptus wood in Tasmania has settled for a confidential amount, with a judge poised to approve the deal.

Aussie Skips and CEO Emmanuel Roussakis have pleaded guilty to price fixing over the supply of skip bins and demolition waste services in Sydney.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has lost its challenge to a decision that tossed its case alleging NSW Ports stymied competition when it signed a 50-year agreement with the state to privatise two ports. 

A judge has referred to an appeals court the question of whether a group costs order can “travel”, as KPMG continues to push to transfer a shareholder class action over the collapse of mining company Arrium to New South Wales.

HWL Ebsworth has been found negligent in advising on a joint venture contract for an ambitious Sydney-based land development, which allegedly lost the law firm’s former client $130 million. 

The NSW Independent Planning Commission’s decision to approve an extension for Whitehaven’s Narrabi coal mine was “legally illogical” amid current knowledge of the “extraordinary and deadly” impact of climate change, a court has heard.

The High Court has thrown out laws that banned unions and other third parties from spending more than $20,000 on political campaigns ahead of a New South Wales state election in March.