A judge has refused to sign off on a $42 million settlement of a class action against dairy giant Murray Goulburn, saying the commission sought by the funder appeared out of proportion to the risk and above the going rate.
A judge has ordered all proceedings against Dick Smith to be heard concurrently during a marathon three month trial, after the plaintiffs in a shareholder class action brought against the failed electronics retailer’s insurers aborted a fleeting bid to temporarily discontinue their case.
Perth-based Farooq Khan has lost a key case in the battle for control over investment firm Keybridge Capital, after a judge invalidated a board decision to suspend activist investor Nicholas Bolton as CEO and terminate chair John Patton on the basis of Khan’s breach of his directors’ duties.
Counsel for a class action against Arnold Bloch Leibler alleging negligence over advice to Slater & Gordon has criticised the law firm’s barrister for seeking more time to file a possible dismissal application because he was “only briefed yesterday”, saying the excuse had become an all too frequent one.
One of two shareholder class actions against infant food maker Bellamy’s for allegedly misleading investors about its China growth strategy and declining infant formula market share in Australia wants to expand the class definition to include purchasers of equity swaps.
The judge who presided over a rare securities class action trial last year against department store Myer will deliver judgment in the case this month that could be the first ruling on causation in Australian shareholder class actions and has the potential to have a chilling effect on law firms bringing the cases.
National law firm Holding Redlich is investigating a shareholder class action against Smiles Inclusive, just one week after the embattled Gold Coast dental company reported a $31 million statutory loss.
Three former directors of billion-dollar financial advisory firm Linchpin Capital Group will face two days of questioning in examination proceedings filed on behalf of an investor five months after the company was wound up for running an unregistered investment scheme and misleading investors.
ASIC and other government regulators bringing enforcement action in the docket of one Federal Court judge must abide by a strict new protocol to prevent a repeat of the corporate watchdog’s “wait and see” strategy in a case against ex-Murray Goulburn directors that came close, the judge said, to bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
A judge has refused a bid by two former Murray Goulburn executives to throw out a disqualification case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, despite admonishing the corporate regulator for its delay in bringing the case and establishing a protocol for regulators filing cases in his docket.