Companies Won

Altria, cigarette makers win ruling on Florida smoker lawsuits

Altria Group Inc., the biggest U.S. cigarette maker, and other U.S. tobacco companies won a court ruling that might help them defend thousands of individual lawsuits in Florida.

U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger in Jacksonville, Florida, ruled Aug. 28 that smokers suing the companies can't use factual findings from a state class-action, or group, suit to prove their cases.

“Doing so would comprise an arbitrary deprivation of the defendants' federal due process rights guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment,” Schlesinger wrote.

The ruling threatens to erase much of the advantage that Florida plaintiffs received from the state's highest court in the “Engle” tobacco class action in 2006. The ruling, if upheld on appeal, would apply to 4,000 cases filed in the Jacksonville court and federal cases throughout the state.

Altria, the biggest U.S. cigarette maker, and No. 2 Reynolds American Inc. each face more than 8,000 Engle-related claims by Florida smokers in state and federal courts.

Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services Inc. senior vice president and associate general counsel, said yesterday in a statement that three judges, including Schlesinger, have ruled that “plaintiffs in these cases must prove each and every element of their claims.”

Altria, based in Richmond, Virginia, is the maker of Marlboro cigarettes.

Reynolds Reaction

“Certainly we're pleased with the ruling,” David Howard, a spokesman for Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Reynolds American, said yesterday in a phone interview.

Norwood Wilner, a lawyer representing many of the smokers, didn't return a call seeking comment yesterday.

In the “Engle” case, named after Howard Engle, the lead plaintiff representing a statewide class of smokers, the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 rejected a Miami jury's $280 billion verdict against the companies and ruled that the smokers must sue individually and not as a group.

The court also held that smokers who sue individually can take advantage of factual findings by the jury, including that cigarettes are addictive and cause cancer and that the major U.S. cigarette manufacturers were negligent and sold defective products.

Attorneys for the smokers claim they shouldn't have to prove issues that the Florida Supreme Court said were decided by the Engle jury. The companies say they have the right to present a defense to all aspects of the claims.

In his ruling, Schlesinger said that Florida law and the U.S. Constitution require smokers to prove all the elements of their claims. He urged them to appeal to the federal appeals court in Atlanta to provide guidance to trial courts.

(Published by Bloomberg - September 9, 2008)