The Court approved a $13.5 million settlement of a securities class action under s 33V(1) FCA Act, holding the compromise was within the reasonable range of outcomes notwithstanding that the adopted Davis claims were valued at nil. On distribution under s 33V(2), the Court reduced the litigation funder's claimed commission from 30% to 25% of the gross settlement fund (approximately $3.925 million), holding that 30% was disproportionate where it would leave group members with less than 30% of the fund and less than the funder's own commission; the contractual funding rate agreed in a competitive market provided an appropriate benchmark. The Court declined to allocate any portion of the settlement fund to the funder of a related proceeding (LCM) whose funded claims had been adopted into the settled proceeding, with the question of whether the referee erred in requiring an 'incontrovertible benefit' rather than a lesser standard left partially unresolved as the judgment text was incomplete on this point.
The full text is available to signed-in members.