In 2009, the province of Quebec adopted a tobacco healthcare costs recovery law. The law applied retroactively to past harms caused by tobacco products. A number of tobacco manufacturers challenged the law, alleging that it violated established principles of civil liability and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. 

The plaintiffs alleged that the law: 

• infringed on the plaintiffs’ right to peaceful enjoyment of their property and their defense of prescription.
• deprived the plaintiffs of their right to a full and fair trial (in ongoing and related proceedings).
• interfered with the adjudicative functions of the judiciary.
• shifted the burden of causation onto manufacturers by requiring that, for collective claims, the government need only prove collective harm, rather than individualized, causal, damage. 

Citing to a Supreme Court of Canada judgement which considered the legality of British Columbia’s tobacco cost recovery law, the Superior Court of Quebec dismissed all of the plaintiffs’ claims. The Superior Court of Quebec concluded that judicial independence was not impinged by the law, that the law did not violate the right to a full and fair hearing and that the removal of prescription did not violate the protection of property as protected by the Quebec Charter.