Victoria

A tribunal has ordered a defunct builder of a Dandenong apartment complex to pay $2.9 million in damages for a slew of defects and interest on a loan needed to replace combustible cladding.

The parties in a class action against agricultural giant GrainCorp over alleged noise and odour pollution from a factory in rural Victoria have failed to seal the deal on a settlement reached last month.

A judge has made contempt findings against a real estate agent who attached discovered documents to emails that railed against alleged collusion between a local council and the EPA, but stopped short of finding he intimidated witnesses in a spat over a Ballarat development.

One of 50 subcontractors left unpaid after Victoria's Department of Education nixed three construction project contracts with failed builder Roberts Co (VIC) is set to join in proceedings seeking declarations under a deed of company arrangement. 

Engineering firm Calibre can't get minutes of meetings involving Probuild and the owners of the Pacific Werribee shopping centre in Victoria to defend itself in $356 million defects suit.

HWL Ebsworth and former partner Dennis Bluth have been hit with a new lawsuit in the Victorian Supreme Court after allegedly providing negligent advice regarding a development in south-west Sydney.

The publisher of the Herald Sun has filed a strike-out application against novel privacy claims by the wife of Victorian Liberals' deputy leader Sam Groth, saying it was exempt as a news outlet.

A real estate agency in Victoria has lost a suit seeking the payment of its advertising costs from a former client, with a judge finding that writing 'TBA' in the contract defeated the consumer protection purpose of rules for real estate agents.

In response to a High Court ruling giving the Catholic Church an out for the actions of its priests, Victoria has vowed to introduce legislation to extend the vicarious liability of institutions, a move welcomed by plaintiff law firms.

The events described by an ex-Master Builders Association board member read like a best-seller, involving as they do boardroom drama, a secret investigation and an alleged whistleblower. But as thrilling as they sound, they don't support orders for discovery against the construction lobby group, a judge has said.