Appeals

The NSW Court of Appeal has granted Bianca Rinehart’s bid for her billionaire mother Gina to hand over trust documents that could be used in a dispute over ownership of the $4 billion family trust. 

Max Twigg, race car driver and former owner of the famous Byron Bay Hotel, has lost an appeal of a judge’s finding that he misappropriated around $100 million in family trust money and took steps to conceal the transfer of funds from his mother.

Qantas and the Transport Workers Union both lost their appeals Wednesday of a judge’s decision finding the airline had decided to axe 1,800 ground staff partly to prevent employees bringing industrial action but refusing to reinstate the workers. The airline has vowed to take the case to the High Court.

Two psychiatrists who administered the controversial deep sleep therapy at the Chelmsford Private Hospital in the 1970s have won a Full Federal Court appeal in their defamation cases against publisher HarperCollins, with one of the cases being sent back for a re-trial.

Atanaskovic Hartnell is challenging a $160,000 judgment against the law firm and founding partner John Atanaskovic, who was found to have engaged in a campaign to "abuse, belittle and victimise" a former general manager.

Telecommunications giant SingTel is challenging a ruling in favour of the Australian Taxation Office's decision to reject over $894,000 in tax deductions related to its $14.2 billion acquisition of Optus.

A law firm that recouped two-thirds of a personal injury payout in excess of the statutory cap through a “potentially misleading” costs agreement will pay back a former client $26,200 plus interest.

Former attorney-general Christian Porter has told the Full Court that silk Sue Chrysanthou had to act for him in his defamation action against the ABC over an article airing historical rape allegations, saying she could not refuse the brief simply because a friend of his rape accuser “wishes him ill”.

The High Court has agreed to weigh in on whether property data analytics firm CoreLogic infringed a real estate photographer's copyright by uploading images from realestate.com.au to its platform.

The High Court won't hear a challenge to a decision finding a Canberra property developer that misled investors about GST on its apartments did not have to pay for losses alleged in a class action against it.