Ontario's chief justice Geoffrey Morawetz presided over a collegial half-hour hearing today before approving the schedule to end a CCAA process which has been running for almost 6 years.
It is now expected that 6 court days will taken with the "Sanction Hearing" to approve the settlement reached between tobacco companies and the governments and citizens seeking payment for the damages caused by corporate wrongdoing.
The hearings will take place on the last three business days of January and the first three of February 2025. Leading up to that grand finale are a number of deadlines for depositing motions and evidence, with only slight tweaks to the version circulated a month ago.
Also approved today were two other requests from individual parties. The Quebec class action lawyers sought approval of the process by which they will inform their clients of their proposed fees (the approval or not of these fees will be determined at the sanction hearing). Rothmans, Benson and Hedges requested permission to direct the $28 million they received from insurance companies to the sums that will be included in the initial payments.
Still left hanging ...
Despite the agreement on the details of the last stage, there are apparently still areas of uncertainty and disagreement. Lawyers for JTI-Macdonald and Rothmans Benson and Hedges noted that the concerns identified at the end of October are still unresolved.
RBH counsel said he was "hoping these [concerns about paying more than their fair share in comparison with Imperial Tobacco] can be dealt with in the opening week of January through mediation".
The lawyer representing JTIM gave no hint that their company would back down over the settlement requirement that they end their practice of converting profits into inter-corporate royalty payments.
Despite attempts to nail down the final stages of this settlement, these "unresolved issues" are a reminder that it may not be over until these fat ladies sing.
Some governments are acknowledging this publicly, as Nunavut did last month: "Now that the Plan has been proposed to the court and accepted by all creditors, the next steps depend on the tobacco companies’ response. We encourage them to support this fair solution. Regardless of their decision, we are committed to pursuing our claims and recovering health care costs through the courts if necessary.."
Merry Christmas!
This is the last working court day before the end of the year. Justice Morawetz promised to have his decisions out as soon as possible. In the same breath that he closed with a seasonal greeting, he expressed a hope that the "unresolved issues" would be settled by January 29th.
