Lawyers representing plaintiffs in a class-action suit against tobacco companies say their clients are upset with a Quebec Court of Appeal ruling denying them $1 billion in immediate payout of damages.
“It is a setback for those plaintiffs that have cancer now and are just not going to live until the end of the appeal process,” said Rob Cunningham, a lawyer for the Canadian Cancer Society. “They’re just not going to see the benefits, personally, of this judgment and that’s tragic.”
The $1 billion was part of a June Superior Court judgment ordering major tobacco companies to pay $15 billion. The judge ordered the $1 billion to be paid out right away due to fears that many of the plaintiffs would die before the appeals process was over.
Imperial Tobacco spokesperson Eric Gagnon said the company is pleased with the ruling.
“The judgment that was rendered by the Superior Court was not founded on legal grounds,” he said. “There’s no precedent that justified a provisional execution of more than $1 billion in a class action.”
Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and JTI McDonald are appealing the overall decision, a process that could take years and go all the way up to the Supreme Court.
“I believe the tobacco companies do see the writing on the wall,” said Cunningham. “They’re trying to delay the inevitable as much as possible. Delay, delay, delay the payments as much as possible.”
Gagnon said that the ruling on the $1 billion bodes well for the appeal.
“We believe we have a strong grounds for appeal,” he said. “I think the decision of the provisional execution demonstrates those grounds. We believe we will demonstrate to the Court of Appeal that we should not be held responsible and the consumers knew about those health risks when they started smoking.”
