Canada: Supreme Court dismisses cigarette maker Philip Morris

Canada: Supreme Court dismisses cigarette maker Philip Morris
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AFP / File
/ GEOFF ROBINS

The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday inflicted a major setback on US cigarette maker Philip Morris by denying him access to personal data from tobacco patients in a lawsuit against him since 2001 against British Columbia.

This Canadian Pacific Coast province has been pursuing 14 tobacco companies for seventeen years, including Rothmans, RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris, for reimbursement of the money it owed for treating people with tobacco. [19659003] The Provincial Court of Appeal upheld a first-instance decision last year in support of Philip Morris's view that a fair trial required the personal data of the patients concerned.

The tobacco company claimed the databases containing the personal health information of patients in the province of British Columbia collected between 1991 and 2011, "as the costs of and the use of prescription drugs ", recalled the Supreme Court, in a judgment consulted by AFP.

Unanimously, the nine judges of the highest court of Canada have broken the judgments of

"The present case has not yet reached a point where the production of documents would be necessary," Judge Russell Brown explained in his judgment.

"Fear of fairness" trial is, at best, premature, "says the magistrate.

This decision goes beyond the case of British Columbia because other Canadian provinces have also initiated identical lawsuits against tobacco companies. Together, provincial governments claim Canadian Tobacco $ 120 billion ($ 78.1 billion) to tobacco companies, according to Canadian media.

Canadian Cancer Society lawyer Rob Cunningham praised Supreme Court decision: " The goal of the tobacco industry is to delay the start of this lawsuit. (The companies) do not want to pay billions of dollars in damages, "he told reporters.

13 / 07/2018 19:53:58 –
Ottawa (AFP) –
© 2018 AFP