The number of lawyers involved in a class action against 3A Composites over allegedly combustible cladding is set to balloon, with the German cladding manufacturer lobbing cross-claims against nine different parties.
Third-party liability insurers may become the latest parties to be dragged into a complex class action over alleged defects in Sydney’s Opal Tower, which has has spawned six cross-claims so far.
Opal Tower builder Icon and structural engineer WSP Structures have been joined as defendants in a class action brought by property owners, who have also added a slew of consumer law claims to the complex proceedings.
A judge has suggested hearing the long-running class action over the Opal Tower disaster as early as the first quarter of next year, as the court juggles three concurrent lawsuits and a slew of cross-claims over the doomed building.
A subsidiary of BHP Billiton can’t get its hands on underwriting documents in its case against Lloyd’s of London and Berkley Insurance, which are being sued by the mining giant for over $36 million after allegedly substandard equipment was installed at its Olympic Dam Mine.
Construction firm Icon Co has rejected QBE Underwriting’s argument that exclusion clauses in coverage for Sydney’s Opal Tower meant the insurer did not have to indemnity it after a series of major cracks in the building led to the evacuation of thousands of residents on Christmas Eve last year.
QBE Underwriting has defended its decision to deny insurance coverage to the builder of Sydney’s troubled Opal Tower development, claiming the cracking was not “major” and did not cause last year’s Christmas Eve evacuation.
The defendants in the Sydney Opal Tower class action have been formally banned from contacting represented group members about their claims while the proceeding remains on foot, after communications were allegedly sent to apartment owners.