U.S. Judge Dismisses Canadian Suit Against RJR
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A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a $1-billion Canadian lawsuit against RJ Reynolds Tobacco Holdings that accused the tobacco giant of cigarette smuggling. Judge Thomas McAvoy said the lawsuit ran afoul of a 1700s English common law rule adopted by the United States that prohibits its courts from being used to collect another country’s revenue. Canada filed suit in December, alleging that cigarette makers attempted to defraud it of tax revenue in the early 1990s with a scheme that shipped Canadian brands of cigarettes to the United States and then smuggled them back into Canada. Efforts to reach the tobacco makers for comment on the ruling were not immediately successful.
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