Asks court to review $1-billion civil case
Jump to full article: National Post (ca), 2002-03-09
Author: Christin Schmitz / Southam News
Intro: Citing the need to combat "transnational organized crime and international terrorism," Canada has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to revive the federal government's moribund $1-billion civil action against the U.S.-based R.J. Reynolds tobacco empire for alleged cigarette smuggling.
Canada's U.S. attorneys filed a petition in Washington this week asking the high court to hear an appeal of a U.S. federal appeals court decision last October that quashed the unprecedented Canadian suit for violating a centuries-old "revenue rule" that bars U.S. courts from interpreting or enforcing the tax laws of foreign nations.
The petition is a last-ditch bid to resuscitate what has now become the most expensive lawsuit ever launched by the federal government. . .
"We had what we believe to be a correct view of the law and that's why we are taking it to the United States Supreme Court," he said. "We are no less resolved and we are no less committed to our belief in how the revenue rule does not apply to our lawsuit in the United States."
He declined to comment on what action, if any, the federal government would take against the tobacco industry if the top court declines to hear the case. The court hears only a tiny percentage of the cases it receives.
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