Quebec Provisional Execution Order Cancelled

Friday 24 July 2015

Quebec Provisional Execution order cancelled

Imperial Tobacco Canada, British American Tobacco plc's Canadian subsidiary and the Canadian subsidiaries of Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International have had their request to cancel a CAD$1.1 billion provisional execution order granted by the Quebec Court of Appeal, late yesterday.

The provisional execution order was imposed by the Superior Court of Quebec as part of a CAD$15.6 billion judgement in two Class Action cases, issued on June 1st 2015.

Jerome Abelman, Legal & External Affairs Director for British American Tobacco said:

 "We are pleased to see Imperial Tobacco Canada's arguments prevail with the cancellation of an unprecedented and legally unjustified provisional execution order".

Imperial Tobacco Canada will now focus on its appeal at the Quebec Court of Appeal against the original Superior Court of Quebec Class Action judgement issued on 1st June 2015 which the company argues ignored the reality that both adult consumers and governments have known about the risks associated with smoking for decades.

This Court of Appeal process is expected to conclude in the next two-to-three years with a potential further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

British American Tobacco plc was not a party to the proceeding and is not a party to the original judgement.

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