Two companies owned by billionaire Clive Palmer have suffered a legal setback, with a judge setting aside prior orders enforcing two awards in a $30 billion mining dispute with the Western Australian government and criticising the companies for misleading the court.
A former Rio Tinto executive living in the US who wants to appear in person at an upcoming trial in a case brought by ASIC says the hearing should be moved to next year when a COVID-19 vaccine will likely become available and he could travel to Australia to “mount a vital defence”.
The lead applicant in a class action against Bayer over allegedly defective Essure contraceptive devices will ask the court to discontinue its claims against two makers of the controversial medical implants.
Insurers will face a flood of pandemic-related claims after an appeals court ruled in a test case brought by the Insurance Council that certain infectious disease exclusions in business interruption cover do not apply to coronavirus-related claims.
A judge has dismissed Pfizer’s bid for preliminary discovery to pursue a possible patent infringement case against drug maker Sandoz over a generic version of its blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis biologic Enbrel.
A judge has denied Fuji Xerox’s attempt to strike out parts of the defences of Ernst & Young and a former Fuji director in a lawsuit over alleged massive accounting irregularities.
Two former executives of mining giant Rio Tinto accused by ASIC of breaching their directors duties have asked the court to vacate an upcoming trial, after raising concerns that COVID-19 could affect their ability to appear.
US cryptocurrency maker Ripple Labs has hit back at an intellectual property lawsuit brought by the Australian company behind the ubiquitous PayID mobile banking system, saying its PayID trade mark is neither substantially identical nor deceptively similar to the Aussie mark.
A judge’s decision to throw out a shareholder class action against engineering company Worley is a loss for plaintiffs lawyers and could result in fewer listed companies willing to settle cases alleging they breached their disclosure obligations, but the ruling is not likely to have a significant chilling effect on securities litigation.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been fined $150,000 after a Federal Court judge found the bank had breached the law by increasing a problem gambler’s credit card limit but that the conduct was “not systematic, deliberate or covert”.