It is being reported that this morning, Westpac and the other 19 banks in the Bell Group litigation have won special leave to appeal their loss last year in the West Australian courts to the High Court of Australia.

At first instance in 2008 the Banks were ordered by his Honour Justice Owen to pay about $1.58 billion to the liquidators of Bell Group (link). Their appeal of that decision to the Court of Appeal of the West Australian Supreme Court failed – see that judgment here. This morning, the full bench of the High Court granted the Banks special leave to appeal.

The brief media report may be read here. And thus Australia’s reportedly most expensive and longest-running court case continues…