At some point during yesterday's hearing, Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz observed that more than 6000 pages of documentation had been submitted to support the 13 or more formal agreements he was being asked to make just two days before the tobacco settlement takes effect.
In contrast to the volume of material, the time given to the presentation, discussion and approval of all these requests did not exceed 40 minutes. The lawyers presenting the requests were mostly concise to the point of laconic. And through their silence when given a chance to comment, all of the formerly warring parties seemed to be in agreement with the last-minute touch-ups to the agreements they approved last December.
Given the pace of developments over the past quarter century, yesterday's developments resembled the digestive tract of the proverbial goose. The decisions involved are linked at the end of this post.
On second thought...
Before court was adjourned, Chief Justice Morawetz let it be known that a subsequent private discussion (case conference) would take place shortly afterwards. The topic under discussion was his ruling earlier that week that there would be a hold-back on the fees paid to lawyers representing the Quebec class action until all claims had been settled.
Yesterday afternoon, he backtracked somewhat on that requirement and issued an amended version of his ruling on fees. Instead of a vaguely defined requirement for a reserve fund, the new text (paras 77 to 79) establishes that "a reserve be held back from the QCAP Counsel fee and retained in the respective QCAP Trust Accounts in the total amount of $50,000,000, the purpose of which is to alleviate, to the extent possible, any reduction in compensation to claimants because of the actual take up rate ..."
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Settlement-related decisions and orders released after August 26 - including one by the US Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday - will be linked below as they become available.
Plan Amendment Orders:
- Imperial Tobacco - Fourth Amended and Restated
- Rothmans Benson & Hedges - Fourth Amended and Restated
- JTI-Macdonald - Fourth Amended and Restated
U.S. Chapter 5
Insurance Settlements
Collateral Agent Order
- Imperial Tobacco - Collateral Agent Order
- Rothmans Benson & Hedges - Collateral Agent Order
- JTI-Macdonald - Collateral Agent Order
Plan Administration Reserve Trust Order
- Imperial Tobacco - Plan Administration Trust
- Rothmans Benson & Hedges -Plan Administration Trust
- JTI-Macdonald - Plan Administration Trust
Claims Administrator Order
- Imperial Tobacco - Claims Administrator Order
- Rothmans Benson & Hedges - Claims Administrator Order
- JTI-Macdonald - Claims Administrator Order
Other issues
Class Counsel Fee Orders- Tobacco Producers Fee
- Knight Class
