An appeals court has found that building company LU Simon should not pay $12 million in damages for a 2014 fire which broke out in Melbourne’s Lacrosse tower and was accelerated by Alucobest cladding panels since the company had relied on consultants’ advice in choosing the cladding material.
Owners of units in Sydney’s Opal Tower have filed a lawsuit against the NSW Government and builder Icon after allegedly discovering more than 500 additional defects in the troubled building.
The applicant in a $47.6 million class action against a unit of car leasing company McMillan Shakespeare has been denied access to insurance documents sought to determine the value of the case, with a judge saying access would “distort the playing field”.
The Federal Court is pushing ahead with an expedited trial in Icon Co’s case against Liberty Mutual Insurance and QBE over the Opal Tower disaster, just one month after originally scheduled, and it’s going online to do it.
The construction company behind Sydney’s Opal Tower has filed a cross claim seeking $30 million from structural architect WSP Structures over its allegedly faulty building design.
Construction firm Icon Co has pressed the Federal Court for an expedited hearing in its case against insurers Liberty Mutual Insurance and QBE over the 2018 Opal Tower disaster, saying it wants to resolve the matter before a class action brought by apartment owners in building progresses too far.
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.