Shareholders have appealed a ruling that found a “serious problem” with market-based causation and dismissed three cases against the liquidator of failed global financial services firm Babcock & Brown.
Shareholders of collapsed steel and mining giant Arrium have won the OK to question a one-time director over possible class action claims that former officers misled the market and that auditor KPMG was negligent in preparing a healthy financial report just two years before the company went under.
Whether judges can alter the terms of litigation funding agreements in class actions is a question that will remain unsettled for now, after litigation funder IMF Bentham chose to sidestep a lengthy, costly and risky challenge to the reach of the court’s powers.
The former chief financial officer of Murray Goulburn has asked a judge to relieve him from any disqualification order sought by the corporate watchdog in its case over his alleged role in the milk supplier’s continuous disclosure breaches, saying he is already the subject of orders that ban him from the dairy industry.
An average of 23 class actions have been filed every year in Australia since the class action regime was introduced in 1992, a number that belies recent claims of an explosion in litigation, a new report by a leading class action expert says.
Certain claims in a shareholder class action against insolvent training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers have been dropped, as the long-running case awaits a new trial date pending the outcome of a separate Full Court appeal.
A NSW Supreme Court judge has raised concerns about a dispute over fees owed to two law firms and a funder in relation to four shareholder actions brought against the liquidators of HIH Insurance.
Three former Vocation executives — including former federal Treasurer John Dawkins — have been hit with disaqualification orders and fines totalling $125,000 after a court found they breached their directors’ duties ahead of the collapse of the education provider.
An investment fund named after a 17th-century pirate has hit the National Stock Exchange with a $6.3 million lawsuit over a suspension decision it calls “capricious” and a violation of the NSX’s terms.
Lawfinance, formerly known as Just Kapital, has won summary dismissal of a lawsuit initiated by its founder seeking a piece of the funder’s $5 million cut of the $16.85 million Wickham securities class action settlement.