Two class actions against collapsed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson may be dismissed earlier than expected unless the Supreme Court allows them proceed against a liquidator who has said the failed company is strapped of funds.
A judge overseeing three toxic foam class actions against the Commonwealth of Australia has said he’s not comfortable approving a common fund order which does not detail specific remuneration amounts for funder IMF Bentham.
The Chief Justice of the Federal Court wants four referees to weigh what’s expected to be voluminous expert evidence in three class actions against the Commonwealth of Australia over exposure to allegedly toxic foam used on a government military bases, saying with 60 class actions pending in the Federal Court, devoting a single judge to the case for months on end should be a “mechanism of last resort”.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has launched a bid to stay a shareholder class action brought by boutique law firm Phi Finney McDonald after the firm retreated from a plan to consolidate its case with a competing class action run by rival Maurice Blackburn.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia wants a judge to ensure it doesn’t get hit with double the cost for work defending two shareholder class actions brought by rival plaintiffs law firms.
A judge has reprimanded CIMIC Group’s preparations to defend a class action against it, saying a late attempt to file critical evidence was a sign something “pretty horrible” had gone on behind the scenes.
A judge won’t defer the opt-out notice in a shareholder class action against GetSwift pending the High Court’s decision on a special leave application to revive a competing class action, saying the sooner the case settles the better.
Law firms Maurice Blackburn and Phi Finney McDonald have stepped back from a proposed consolidation of their class actions against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and want to run their own cases again, but now with “harmonised” pleadings.
A law firm on the losing end of a landmark ruling over competing shareholder class actions against GetSwift has argued that a proposed opt-out notice to group members should wait until after its High Court appeal. And the judge will let the firm make its argument, after hearing that the winning law firm has been, in his words, “sitting on its hands”.
A judge has signed off on a $6.7 million settlement in a shareholder class action against mining firm MacMahon Holdings that will see group members get $2.4 million, or 35 per cent, of the total sum.