Ragoonanan v. Imperial Tobacco Limited

Family members whose relatives died in a house fire allegedly caused by a cigarette sued the tobacco company claiming that the company’s cigarettes were defective because they were not “fire safe”. The plaintiffs sought class action status on behalf of other Canadians who were injured or suffered a loss as a result of a cigarette fire that occurred after October 1, 1987. In this decision, the court ruled that a class action was not appropriate because the class could not be sufficiently identified, a class action was not the preferable procedure, and that the proposed litigation plan for determining individual claims would not provide the tobacco company with sufficient input or procedural safeguards.

Raoonan v. Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., 78 O.R. (3d) 98 (2005).

  • Canada
  • Oct 31, 2005
  • Ontario Superior Court of Justice

Parties

Plaintiff

  • Jasmine Ragoonanan and Philip Ragoonanan, by their Estate Representative Davina Ragoonanan
  • Ranuka Baboolal, by her Estate Representative Vashti Baboolal

Defendant Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited

Third Party

  • Davina Ragoonanan
  • Ronald Balkarran

Legislation Cited

Class Proceedings Act, 1992

Negligence Act

Related Documents

Type of Litigation

Tobacco Control Topics

Substantive Issues

None

Type of Tobacco Product

None

"In short, while proof of a breach of a duty of care would be an essential step in establishing liability, the plaintiffs have not persuaded me that, notwithstanding the existence of the [page126] disputable individual issues that would remain, such proof would sufficiently achieve the objectives of access to justice, or judicial economy. The procedure under the CPA is not appropriate, or available, in every case where there are common issues. As Nordheimer J. observed in Moyes v. Fortune Financial Corp. (2002), 61 O.R. (3d) 770, [2002] O.J. No. 4297 (S.C.J.), at pp. 779-80 O.R.: The question on a motion for certification is not simply whether there are common issues raised by the claims 2005 CanLII 40373 (ON SC)advanced. Any proposed class action that has any chance of being certified will, virtually by definition, have common issues. Rather, the issue is whether the resolution of the proposed common issues is going to move the litigation forward to a sufficient degree so as to justify certification of the action as a class proceeding. An important consideration in this regard is whether any individual issues that will remain for determination after the common issues are resolved are limited or whether what remains to be determined is sufficiently extensive that the determination of the common issues essentially marks the commencement, as opposed to the completion, of the liability inquiry."