Litigation

A law firm has prevailed in a fight over unpaid legal fees, with an appeals court ruling the firm is entitled to priority over certain funds recovered in a receivership of a South Stradbroke resort because of its equitable lien over costs orders it secured for its client.

The owner of the Oaks Hotels & Resorts is facing a class action by landlords who allege the hotel operator misrepresented that it was entitled to reduced rent payments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A class acton against Fletcher Building’s Iplex over thousands of allegedly burst pipes in homes around Australia is gearing up for a mammoth 12-week trial, with a separate claim by BGC, which installed the pipes, to proceed by way of a test case.

A Southern Cross Gold unit has attacked a community group’s failure to put on evidence of its members' financial status to support claims that it can't meet the company’s $230,000 security demand in a dispute over a Victorian tunneling project. 

Waste management company Renex has filed court proceedings seeking to overturn an environmental prosecution, alleging the EPA's investigator was not properly authorised to bring the case. 

Publican Julian Gerner has “significantly” amended his claims in a dispute over the redevelopment of the Continental Hotel Sorrento, a court has heard.

Facing a lawsuit over cladding by the owners corporation of a $66 million Erskineville, Sydney apartment complex, builder Richard Crookes has brought its own claims against fire safety consultant Jenson Hughes.

Liquidators appointed by the court to five companies behind $130 million worth of construction projects in Brisbane have won more time to bring potential claims while they investigate several matters, including an allegedly “very odd” tax situation.

An appeals court has relaxed freezing orders against Sydney property developer Golden Rain, allowing it to sell property to repay its debts while it defends a $26 million defects claim by the owners corporation of the Sugarcube Apartments and Honeycomb Terraces developments.

Shell is facing $30 million arbitration proceedings from Indian renewables company Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy stemming from agreements to construct and operate the Gangarri solar farm in Queensland.