Philip Morris International Inc.’s Canadian division received creditor protection in Canada, a move that holds off legal action against the largest tobacco company in the country, Bloomberg News reported. Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. was granted protection by the Ontario Superior Court under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, the Canadian division said on Friday in a statement. The move includes an initial order to stay proceedings in a Quebec class action suit and other pending litigation, including those brought by all 10 Canadian provinces tied to the recovery of health-care costs, the company said. Class action lawsuits filed by Quebec smokers already prompted two other tobacco companies to seek creditor protection after they were ordered to pay damages of about C$17 billion ($12.7 billion). British American Tobacco Plc, Philip Morris and a local unit of Japan Tobacco Inc. are defendants in lawsuits by Canada’s 10 provinces that want to recoup health-care costs linked to the effects of smoking, a move reminiscent of the U.S. in the 1990s. The first of these cases, some of which date back almost two decades, is scheduled to come to trial this year.
