Background: Clarke Energy contracted with Alinta Energy Transmission (Roy Hill) to engineer, procure and construct a $78 million gas-fired power station at Newman in remote Western Australia. The constrained site lay between existing power stations and near a gas pipeline. The project encountered delays involving Alinta’s removal of underground services and inadequate reinstatement of the disturbed…
Held: Rees J held that Clarke was entitled to extensions totalling 142 days: 92 days for the delayed bulk earthworks, 27.5 days for COVID-19 disruption, 16 days for the relay-panel isolation delay, and 6.5 days for network unavailability. Alinta had breached the contract by failing to provide timely access to a site on which Clarke could perform the work and by…
Background: Kevin Chelvam, a police officer, employed Myanmar national Piang Ngaih Don as a domestic worker. He resided with his then-wife, Gaiyathiri d/o Murugayan, their two children, and two tenants. His then-mother-in-law, Prema d/o S Naraynasamy, often stayed at the flat. Gaiyathiri repeatedly abused Don physically and psychologically and deprived her of adequate food and rest;…
Held: The High Court dismissed Kevin’s appeal. The evidence supported the inference that he knew Don’s life was endangered by food deprivation: her drastic weight loss was plainly visible, and she desperately stole food—including seasoning and discarded food—despite being punished. As Don’s registered employer, Kevin had a legal duty to provide adequate food, and his omission in the face of that…
Background: Glencore Energy UK Ltd supplied crude oil to Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery Limited under a framework of agreements that included separate sales confirmations for individual cargoes. After PLOR entered compulsory liquidation in June 2025, Glencore alleged that five sales confirmations, covering more than US$230 million of unpaid oil, had been induced by fraudulent misrepresentations concerning…
Held: Mr Justice Trower granted Glencore leave to commence and pursue the proposed proceedings. The court did not finally decide whether Glencore was entitled to rescission or any proprietary remedy. It held only that Glencore’s case was genuinely arguable and raised sufficiently serious and substantial questions for trial.
Background: The plaintiffs are a certified class of asylum seekers who entered the United States without admission or parole, were placed in expedited-removal screening, and received positive credible-fear determinations. They were then transferred to regular removal proceedings. Because 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1)(B)(ii), as interpreted in Jennings v. Rodriguez, mandates their detention while their asylum applications are…
Held: The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of the motion to dismiss on the certified issues. It held that none of the jurisdictional bars in 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(A) applied because the class was not challenging an individual removal determination, the application of expedited-removal procedures to particular noncitizens, or an agency policy implementing those procedures. Instead, it challenged the constitutionality of…
Background: Kendall Chopin worked for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development as a probationary Mobile Equipment Operator 2. After DOTD terminated him on April 16, 2025, he appealed to the Louisiana State Civil Service Commission, alleging racial discrimination, disability bias, retaliation, and procedural violations.
Held: The First Circuit affirmed. Because Chopin was a probationary employee, DOTD could separate him at any time, and he lacked the disciplinary-appeal rights afforded to permanent classified employees. His appeal therefore depended on sufficiently alleging discrimination within the categories recognized by the applicable civil-service provisions or a violation of the Civil Service Article or Rules.
Background: Thomas Eccleston began working as a firefighter for the City of Waterbury in 1995. In 2015, he entered a last-chance agreement providing that he could be terminated if he tested positive for alcohol at a level of 0.04 or above or for a controlled substance. After being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he obtained a…
Held: The Appellate Court affirmed without reaching the merits of Eccleston’s challenge to the dismissal of his PUMA claim. His appellate briefing did not meaningfully analyze why the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework should apply to PUMA, relied incorrectly on a federal decision that did not apply that framework, and failed to address the trial court’s dispositive reasoning that PUMA required evidence…
Background: Brett Antymniuk and Hot Air Balloon Ride Pty Ltd as trustee for the Stockton Beach Camp Superannuation Fund sued to recover principal advanced under two 2024 loan agreements. They also sought declarations that each held an equitable charge over property owned by Tracey Anne Davies at Hazelbrook, relying on a clause in the agreements that…
Held: Richmond J ordered Antymniuk, the first plaintiff, to provide $30,000 as security for Davies’s costs. Antymniuk ordinarily resided outside Australia and had no assets in Australia, and there was no evidence that a costs judgment would be as readily enforceable against him in Sweden as it would be in New South Wales. Although there was no evidence about his financial…
Background: Stephen Turner retained Coupland Cavendish Limited, trading as Gowing Law, under a conditional fee agreement for a personal-injury claim arising from a road accident. The claim settled for £3,000 plus costs. The solicitors later delivered a bill showing profit costs of £7,944 inclusive of VAT, a £750 success fee, and disbursements. Their cash account also…
Held: The Court of Appeal unanimously allowed the appeal. It held that the court had no power in the section 70 assessment proceedings to compel answers about a possible ATE commission because that subject was not a “matter in dispute in the proceedings” for CPR Part 18 purposes. A solicitor-and-own-client assessment concerns whether the costs in the solicitor’s bill were reasonably…
Background: Gustavo Kinrys, a Massachusetts psychiatrist, defrauded private and public health insurers between 2015 and 2018. Among other conduct, he billed for more than 1,000 sessions while either he or the purported patient was outside the country, delayed insurers’ requests for records by directing them to a fictitious office manager, and created false treatment records. A…
Held: The First Circuit affirmed the intended-loss calculation. When a scheme is rife with fraud, the billed amount may serve as prima facie evidence of intended loss, subject to the defendant’s opportunity to show that he intended to obtain less. Although Kinrys’s in-network contracts supported his argument that he expected only the insurers’ negotiated reimbursement rates, the district court did not…
Background: Austin Bridge and Road, L.P. sought supervisory review of a ruling from the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish. The trial court’s July 28, 2026 judgment ordered Austin Bridge to furnish a supplemental suspensive-appeal bond of $6,207,862.09.
Held: The Court of Appeal granted the writ and reversed the July 28, 2026 judgment. It held that although Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 2088(A)(5) gives a trial court continuing jurisdiction over an appeal bond, that authority does not permit the court to increase a previously sufficient bond solely to cover interest accruing after the security was furnished.
Background: Tyrone Pierce entered nolo contendere pleas in 2008 to kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault, second-degree assault, and witness tampering. The charges arose from July 2004 incidents involving Pierce and his former girlfriend, identified as C. He received a total effective sentence of ten years’ incarceration followed by fifteen years of special parole, consecutive to a sentence…
Held: The Connecticut Appellate Court affirmed. Pierce’s new petition presented the same legal ground as his prior habeas petition: an alleged pre-plea failure to disclose exculpatory materials concerning C’s alleged crimes against his grandmother. Calling the newer records evidence of inadequate police investigation, rather than evidence to impeach C, was only a reformulation of the previously litigated claim; he also sought…
Background: Christopher Wright, who was incarcerated and appeared without counsel, sued the Trustees of the Patrician Brothers and Sydney Catholic Schools Ltd as trustee for the Sydney Catholic Schools Trust. He alleged that, while attending Patrician Brothers Catholic School in Fairfield around 1989, he was sexually abused by the Deputy Principal and a religious brother and…
Held: Richardson J granted Wright leave under ss 4 and 5 of the Felons (Civil Proceedings) Act, effective nunc pro tunc. The retrospective order authorized the proceeding in the form of the amended statement of claim filed on 31 October 2024, despite Wright’s failure to obtain leave before commencing it.