Growers Serve Claims on Canadian Manufacturers

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 01/05/2010

Two of Canada's beleaguered tobacco manufacturers have been served a statement of claim on behalf of leaf growers, according to a story by Jeff Helsdon for The Tillsonburg News. Werner Keller, of the Windsor law firm, Sutts Strosberg LLP, said recently that a statement of claim had been served on Imperial Tobacco Canada and Rothmans Benson & Hedges. The lawsuit is based on a guilty plea by Imperial and Rothmans in July 2008 to a single count of violating the federal Excise Act by aiding persons to sell or be in possession of tobacco products manufactured in Canada that were not packaged and were not stamped in conformity with the Excise Act. The cash settlement generated by the guilty pleas was the basis for the federal Tobacco Transition Program - the leaf growing buy-out program. Keller said JTI Macdonald was being treated differently because the company was under court protection under the Credits Arrangement Act. "In order to proceed [against JTI], we have to get court approval to go forward," Keller said. The lawsuit against the tobacco companies was launched by the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board and individual growers. Meanwhile, the New Tobacco Alliance Committee is involved in a separate, continuing lawsuit against the government for its role in the growth of the contraband tobacco industry. Enditem