Supermarket giant Woolworths can recoup losses from a 2014 train derailment in South Australia despite a contractual clause excluding force majeure events, the NSW Supreme Court has found.
A lengthy dispute over insurance in a settled class action against sandalwood producer Quintis has been resolved, with the Federal Court rejecting a challenge by two insurers to the rectification of policies that could provide a further $11.25 million in recoveries to group members.
A McDonald’s franchisee accused of failing to give employees paid rest breaks has hit back at a lawsuit filed by the retail workers’ union, arguing its employees took their entitled breaks, but sometimes in a “non-continuous” manner.
An appeals court has found that building company LU Simon should not pay $12 million in damages for a 2014 fire which broke out in Melbourne’s Lacrosse tower and was accelerated by Alucobest cladding panels since the company had relied on consultants’ advice in choosing the cladding material.
K&L Gates has fended off a mid-case bid for costs by former clients who are seeking $3 million in a negligence lawsuit and told a court on Wednesday they wasted money responding to a “defective defence” by the law firm.
Allowing former senior barrister Norman O’Bryan to reopen his defence in the Banksia class action while “avoiding the witness box” was clearly prejudicial, and futile to boot, a judge has said in his reasons for refusing the silk’s last-minute application.
Once high-flying barrister Norman O’Bryan might seek to challenge a refusal by the judge overseeing the Banksia class action to revisit his abandoned defence and accept into evidence a document he claims proved he did not secretly hold shares in the funder behind the case.
A judge has approved a “disappointing” $25 million settlement in long-running class action litigation over the collapse of electronics retailer Dick Smith with claims worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The litigation funding company controlled by the late solicitor Mark Elliott has told a court of its “remorse and regret” for its misconduct in the Banksia Securities class action, a case that has been described as the “darkest chapter in Victoria’s legal history”.
The son of Banksia class action funder Mark Elliott was no Michael Corleone of the Godfather, and was not knowingly complicit in an alleged scheme masterminded by his father to defraud group members and destroy evidence, his lawyer has told a court.