A judge has ruled Scenic Tours can cross-examine class action members without seeking approval from referees, who will oversee a process for assessing amounts owed to them, after the tour operator mostly lost its appeal of a judgment that put it on the hook for damages to disappointed cruise goers.
A judge has found that lead plaintiffs in a class action by commercial fishing operations against Gladstone Ports can bring new claims out of time, saying it would be “grossly inconsistent” if group members had broader limitation relief than representative parties.
Cruise operator Scenic Tours is stuck with a $10 million damages bill but has avoided paying for disappointed traveller’s flights, after an appeals court mostly rejected its appeal of an award to travellers who were promised a “once in a lifetime cruise along the grand waterways of Europe” but were instead forced to take the bus.
A judge won’t stay a reference process which US company Fluor claims is infected with bias, in a “monumental” dispute with energy giant Santos that has already generated a $57.5 million legal bill for the engineering firm.
Senior restructuring and insolvency lawyers have welcomed a novel ruling that found a liquidator was entitled to claim his costs ahead of the preferred claims of company employees, but questions remain about the “potentially difficult” interaction between two conflicting priority regimes.
In a novel decision, a judge has found that a liquidator is entitled to claim his “arguably disproportionate” costs ahead of the preferred claims of company employees.
The builder of an allegedly defective Haymarket apartment building has lost an appeal of a decision which found that separate breaches of statutory building warranties do not create individual causes of action.
A judge has approved a $50.45 million settlement in a class action by family members and deceased estates of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations. He has also approved a 13 per cent funding commission by way of a common fund order, saying debates about CFOs had become “lost in the label”.
Coffee brand Vittoria can’t transfer a case over the trade mark for rival Moccona’s instant coffee jar from one Federal Court registry to another, with a judge reminding the company that the court was “well into the 21st century” and could livestream hearings without the need for interstate travel.
The authorised representative of forex broker Union Standard can’t exclude parts of an opinion by an ASIC-appointed expert in a case alleging it traded in margin products with Chinese clients despite knowing it was illegal under Chinese law.