In a win for the corporate watchdog, a court has found collapsed education provider Vocation engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and breached its continuous disclosure obligations by failing to inform shareholders of problems with a large government contract.
A judge has hit the applicant in a sham contraction class action against Appco with costs for forcing the company to file a defence to a superseded pleading, saying the usual “no costs” rule in Fair Work cases had less force in actions backed by third party litigation funders.
An appeals court has ordered a phosphate mining company owned by mining magnate Joseph Gutnik to pay back more than $225,000 owed to the Queensland state government or face immediate liquidation, accusing the company of showing a “cavalier attitude” towards earlier orders made by the court.
Piper Alderman has urged a judge to excuse its “obviously accidental” breach of legal profession costs regulations in its Discovery Metals investor class action against KPMG, warning that group members could suffer detriment if its $3.5 million legal bill was not approved quickly.
The court has blocked a unit of Fortescue Metals Group from accessing emails sent by Squire Patton Boggs about a now disputed power purchase agreement, saying the communications are privileged.
Jetstar Airways has been ordered to pay a $1.95 million penalty after it admitted to making false and misleading representations about customers’ eligibility for refunds on cancelled flights.
The applicants in the Iluka Resources shareholder class action have been given a two month extension to provide a $1.25 million security for costs, after they managed to secure an in-principle deal with a new litigation funder.
Motorola has slammed Hytera for engaging in “industrial espionage on a grand scale”, after more than a thousand Motorola-branded documents were found in the possession of the Chinese radio maker.
The former CEO of a unit of collapsed construction firm Hastie Group told staff to “raid the balance books” to make up financial targets linked to his bonus, prosecutors said at the outset of a two-month criminal trial.
A judge has praised funder IMF Bentham for not seeking to recover from group members the cost of a withdrawn common fund application in one of Shine Lawyer’s toxic foam class actions, agreeing instead to cop the loss itself.