The judge who presided over a rare securities class action trial last year against department store Myer will deliver judgment in the case this month that could be the first ruling on causation in Australian shareholder class actions and has the potential to have a chilling effect on law firms bringing the cases.
The plaintiffs in an investor class action filed against Dick Smith’s insurers want a separate hearing from four other representative and company proceedings against the failed electronics retailer, arguing there would be only the “thinnest basis” for concurrent proceedings if their strike out application was successful.
Former Dick Smith executives Nick Abboud and Michael Potts have pointed the finger at the defunct electronics retailer’s other directors in response to cross claims by auditor Deloitte, which is named in two shareholder class actions over the company’s collapse.
United Petroleum has been hit with legal action by the Fair Work Ombudsman, which accuses the petrol retailer of failing to produce records as part of an investigation of workplace breaches.
Supermarket giant Coles has lost an appeal over $40 million in tax credits it had claimed for fuel that evaporated or leaked from tanks at its service stations, after a judge described the supermarket giant’s argument as “artificial”.
Retail chain Sunglass Hut has agreed to backpay 620 workers almost $2.3 million after admitting it underpaid its part-time staff in stores across Australia for six years.
The competition regulator has given rural retailer company Elders the greenlight to proceed with its proposed $187 million acquisition of wholesale group Australian Independent Rural Retailers, but has warned it will be paying close attention to any future consolidation in the rural sector.
Radio Rentals and its insurer, AIG, have reached a $29 million settlement in a consumer class action alleging the company pushed misleading ‘Rent, Try, $1 Buy’ leases onto vulnerable customers.
A Sydney law firm has been ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation and restitution for breach of its fiduciary duties, after a former client successfully appealed a conflict of interest case.
The plaintiffs in an investor class action brought against the insurers of Dick Smith have lost an early bid to determine the viability of their claim, amid concerns that the total value of five separate cases against the failed retailer will exhaust the $300 million limit of two insurance policies.