Shareholder lawyers, who have started a class action against Crown Resorts in an attempt to crack open secrecy provisions in the contracts of the casino operator’s employees who had faced criminal conviction for promoting gambling in China, have failed.
Earlier today, the federal court cancelled a ruling from 2019, under which the company shareholders’ legal representative Maurice Blackburn was given the chance to collect documents and witness statements from the 19 ex-workers. Now, due to the ruling of the federal court, Mr Blackburn would face the dilemma of either attacking the employment contracts’ provisions of confidentiality all over again or calling the witnesses to keep themselves distant in their claims.
Andrew Watson, who heads Maurice Blackburn’s class actions, shared that the newly-announced federal court’s ruling highlighted the fact that the law was absurd and it needed to be changed as soon as possible. According to Mr Watson, the fact that a whistleblower is free to share their story with the media but is prevented from taking part in a class action as a witness.
In the aforementioned class action, the shareholders’ lawyer claims that the Australian gambling giant did not inform the sector that its VIP business was in danger due to the measures taken by the authorities of mainland China against the employees who have illegally taken part in the promotion of the company’s gambling services in the country.
Shareholders’ Lawyer Disappointed with the Federal Court’s Ruling
At the time when the employees’ arrests in China mainland were publicly revealed in October 2016, Crown Resorts suffered a significant 14% share decline.
In May 2019, Maurice Blackburn received permission from trial judge Bernard Murphy to ignore the provisions of confidentiality included in the Crown Resorts employees’ contracts, so that the workers were able to participate as witnesses in the legal case. The shareholders’ lawyer was also given permission to collect the necessary documents when preparing for the trial that was scheduled in November 2019.
According to Maurice Blackburn, such actions were possible under the provisions of the Federal Court Act, not to mention that the legal action was associated with a public interest.
The decision of the federal court came at a time when Crown Resorts is preparing to face a series of public hearing as part of the New South Wales’ probe that has been started against the company following allegations against the group.
As mentioned above, earlier today, a panel of three federal judges – chief justice James Allsop, Richard White and Michael Lee – revoke the previous court ruling after the act was appealed by the Australian gambling operator. The decision of the federal court was disappointing for the shareholders, as their lawyers do not have many moves in the legal action against the company.
- Author
Olivia Cole
