Blue Dog Group's 'scandalous and embarrassing' pleadings against ASIC thrown out by Supreme Court
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The news: Blue Dog Group, the company of former Blue Sky boss Mark Sowerby, has seen its case against the corporate regulator struck out without leave to make further allegations on the matter, following a judgment by Supreme Court of Queensland Judge Thomas Bradley.
The context: Blue Dog took legal action against the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and 13 other defendants, which included former AFR columnist Joe Aston, over an alleged conspiracy to take down Blue Sky.
The company consented late last month to an order to strike out its statement of claim against all defendants, with any new application to be made by late November, though Bradley had reserved his decision on whether Blue Dog could do that in the case of ASIC.
That's the decision handed down by Bradley today, blocking Blue Dog from lodging what would have been a fifth attempt at its case against the corporate regulator.
What they said: In his 11-page judgment, Bradley said that "lacking any proper basis, Blue Dog’s successive pleadings against ASIC were scandalous and embarrassing. ASIC should not be required to respond to untenable allegations that could not possibly succeed".
"I am satisfied that Blue Dog did not have evidence available to prove the allegations of bad faith it made against ASIC," Bradley said.
"Nor did it have evidence to infer the other substantive conspiracy-related allegations it made based on the same underlying facts. Without such evidence, Blue Dog’s claim against ASIC for damages for conspiracy must fail."
The source: Supreme Court of Queensland
