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.
A bid by KPMG to push off the filing of its defence in a class action over misleading statements ahead of Arrium’s $754 million capital raising in 2014 has been shot down by a judge, who said the auditor has known the claims against it since November.
The judge overseeing a class action against Bayer-owned Monsanto has suggested a hearing by the end of the year on the cancer risks of the company’s Roundup products, saying judgment on that question would either encourage the proceedings to settle or end the case.
A small business owner has launched proceedings against his insurer claiming he was wrongly denied pandemic coverage under a business interruption policy, one of many cases expected to be filed in the wake a landmark ruling on infectious disease exclusions that could cost insurers $10 billion.
Insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson wants to declass a representative action brought on behalf of local councils in NSW alleging it socked them with inflated premiums, arguing there are no common questions to be determined in the case.
A judge has ruled the plaintiffs in the Gladstone Ports class action cannot reserve the legal costs of an application to avoid disclosure of expert reports, despite finding they had raised a novel issue.
The judge considering the $50 million settlement reached in the shareholder class action against failed training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers has signalled his likely approval of the deal, but wants a senior lawyer to tell the court why the funding commission is reasonable.
Boston Scientific has been hit with second class action on behalf of women who were implanted with allegedly defective pelvic mesh devices, just two weeks after the Full Court tossed an appeal to a landmark ruling that put Johnson & Johnson on the hook for millions in damages for failing to adequately warn patients about the risks the products carry.
Queensland-based RMS Construction and Engineering has been accused of refusing to allow staff to take meal breaks, threatening those who complained about excessive hours, and improperly altering timesheets in a new class action filed on behalf of disgruntled employees.
A law firm may soon have more ammunition to back a potential shareholder class action against Blue Sky Alternative Investments, its former directors and auditor Ernst & Young.