On Wednesday August 27th Justice Morawetz will hear requests from a number of parties involved in the ink-almost-dry settlement among Canadian provincial governments, injured smokers and farmers and tobacco companies.
This hearing will come two days before the expected implementation date, and one day after the US Bankruptcy Court is expected to support Imperial Tobacco’s settlement position in the United States.
This post identifies the issues that will be raised on the 27th with links to the paperwork involved. It will be updated as additional material comes on line.
1) “Amended and Restated Plans”
The monitors are seeking another set of amendments to the plans of each company, and have submitted “Fourth Amended and Restated” versions for approval. In broadly similar motions for each company, they provide consistent rationale that the amendments are “necessary”, “consistent” with the original plan that was voted on in December, “not materially adverse” to the financial interests of the creditors and adversely affecting any other party and are not opposed by other parties.
The large volume of changes is immediately apparent from the blackline version which is included in the motion record for each company (Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges (Part 1 and Part 2) and JTI-Macdonald).
The rationale for the changes is explained earlier in the document in a sets of tables that summarize the proposed amendments. Some of the changes embed issues raised earlier this summer and/or proposed for discussion this week.
The Monitors (who also act as Plan Administrators) have submitted a Factum outlining their support for these changes.
2) Collateral Agent Order
Plan Administrators are seeking a court order to appoint Computershare Trust Company as the collateral agent for the parties. Equivalent motions were filed for Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and JTI-Macdonald
3) Claims Administrator Orders
Epic Class Actions Services is seeking an Order with respect to each company to approve their plan for notifying potential claimants and for their administrative costs and for related issues. They estimate it will cost them $92 million for their role in administering the claims.
* Motion with draft order, Global Notice Plan and related documents including claim forms, etc.
3) Settlement of insurance claims
The companies appear to have finalized their arrangements with those insurance companies which provided them coverage at the time of the behaviour which has resulted in the settlement. Imperial Tobacco will receive about $3 million from 5 insurance companies (Aviva, NHRAE, Lloyds, Westport and Zurich). The motion to approve the allocation of this to the settlement funds also identifies other insurance companies from whom there appears to be no pay-out.