No sign of an appeal
It is now 22 days since Justice Morawetz approved the measures that will end the decades-long lawsuits against Canada's tobacco companies. That means that 1 day has passed since the deadline for any parties to file their objections.
Objections to any court decisions based on the Companies Creditors' Arrangement Act must be filed within 21 days (section 14 of the CCAA). Ontario's Court of Appeal has its own methods for managing such appeals that don't necessarily involve public hearings and which make it more difficult for outsiders to know what is going on:
"An appeal under the Companies’ Creditors and Arrangement Act is processed differently from other appeals. Under this act leave to appeal can be obtained by a single judge or a panel. A notice of motion for leave to appeal under this act must be served within 21 days from the date of the order being appealed.*A panel motion follows Rule 61.03 (1) and is heard in writing without the attendance of parties or lawyer. A decision will be made by a panel of Judges.
*A single judge motion follows Rule 37 and a notice of motion (Form 37A) is served upon the respondent(s), and then filed in the office of the Court of Appeal with proof of service at least 7 business days before the hearing date of the motion. A date is chosen by the moving party/ies."
If any notice of motions to appeal the March 6 Sanction Decisions has been submitted, none have yet been identified on the Monitor's sites (the site for Imperial Tobacco has not been functional this week).
No roadmap has been made public
Following the hearing on March 7th, a lawyers-and-judges-only huddle was held in the library of the court house to discuss what Chief Justice Morawetz described as "logistical issues". It seems likely that these related to the steps that must be completed before he will establish the date on which the arrangement will take effect. The plans (including in section 4.2) identify a number of such restructuring steps.
It is not clear how long it will take for these to take place and no road-map or schedule has yet been posted. Even the lawyers seem uncertain. In an interview with the media in march, a lawyer working for several provincial governments gave a wide range for when money will change hands: "somewhere between 90 and 120 days".
Nor is there any indication of when other issues that need court approval - such as the establishment of the research foundation - will be addressed .
A quickie ruling made in semi-private
Last Friday, a motion was filed by lawyers representing the "Pan Canadian Claimants", with a request for the court to block other lawyers from offering their services to assist potential claimants. A similar request had made (and granted) in December, but the injunction which resulted on that occasion expired in March. The request was supported by the lawyers representing the Quebec class action and also by the Ontario government.
A hearing on this issue was held by video conference on Wednesday, but no public access was indicated on the monitors' websites or on the court rolls. Today Chief Justice Morawetz issued the requested injunction.
If other issues were discussed at this time, we are not aware of any public record of them.
