Rothmans announced today that the Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed the constitutional challenge of the Tobacco Damages and Health Care Cost Recovery Act (British Columbia) brought by Rothmans, Benson & Hedges  (RBH) and other Canadian and foreign tobacco product manufacturers.

While RBH is disappointed with the result, it says it is carefully reviewing the Supreme Court's judgement which includes extensive reasons involving a number of complicated issues. The Supreme Court decision also lifted the stay of the legal action brought by the province of British Columbia in 2001 against RBH, Rothmans, Imperial Tobacco, JTI-MacDonald and other tobacco manufacturers. RBH expects that the province's action will now proceed.
No substantive court hearings have been held regarding the merits of the Province's claim as a result of the stay of the action which had been in place. RBH and Rothmans say they deny the provinces' allegations and believe that they have good defenses to the province's claim. (pi)