attgig
05-21-2003, 09:04 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/21/florida.smokers.ap/index.html
Florida appeals court throws out $145 billion tobacco verdict
MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A Florida appellate court on Wednesday threw out a record-setting $145 billion verdict for thousands of Florida smokers against the tobacco industry, saying the case should not have been tried as a class-action lawsuit.
The 67-page order by the 3rd District Court of Appeals said smokers could not group themselves together in a single lawsuit against the nation's five biggest cigarette makers.
By eliminating class-action status, the appeals court discarded the award a Miami-Dade County jury had given sick Florida smokers in 2000.
That jury had decided after a two-year trial that cigarettes are deadly, addictive and defective because they make people sick when used as directed. It set punitive damages for an estimated 300,000 to 700,000 smokers after deciding compensatory damages for three people with cancer who served as representatives of the group.
Attorneys Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, who represented the smokers, were out of town Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
In October, a Los Angeles jury ruled that Philip Morris USA should pay $28 billion to a 45-year smoker with lung cancer. A judge later slashed the award to $28 million, saying it was "a reasonable sum."
The previous record for a verdict won by an individual against a tobacco company was $3 billion, awarded in June 2001 to smoker Richard Boeken. A California judge later reduced that verdict to $100 million.
The major tobacco companies settled state lawsuits for smoking-related health care costs in 1998 for a total of $246 billion.
Over time, public policy has been moving against Big Tobacco.
The World Health Organization is now pushing governments to adopt sweeping anti-smoking restrictions. Florida joined four other states that have banned smoking in most indoor workplaces and restaurants. Arizona voters slapped smokers with a 60-cent-a-pack tax increase, while Missouri narrowly defeated a quadrupling of the cigarette tax.
personally, it's ridiculous that people are winning these lawsuits against the tobacco industry. Yes they did some shady things to attract underage smoking, and lying about addictions and whatnot. But, honestly, are people really not smoking anymore because they know this stuff? no.
What the people doing these lawsuits are saying is that they would never have smoked if they knew it was addictive. imo, that's bs.
yes, penalize the tobacco industry by forcing them to give money to help out communities and rebuild cities, and build boys and girls clubs, etc etc etc...but don't award individual smokers with billions of dollars.
Florida appeals court throws out $145 billion tobacco verdict
MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A Florida appellate court on Wednesday threw out a record-setting $145 billion verdict for thousands of Florida smokers against the tobacco industry, saying the case should not have been tried as a class-action lawsuit.
The 67-page order by the 3rd District Court of Appeals said smokers could not group themselves together in a single lawsuit against the nation's five biggest cigarette makers.
By eliminating class-action status, the appeals court discarded the award a Miami-Dade County jury had given sick Florida smokers in 2000.
That jury had decided after a two-year trial that cigarettes are deadly, addictive and defective because they make people sick when used as directed. It set punitive damages for an estimated 300,000 to 700,000 smokers after deciding compensatory damages for three people with cancer who served as representatives of the group.
Attorneys Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, who represented the smokers, were out of town Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
In October, a Los Angeles jury ruled that Philip Morris USA should pay $28 billion to a 45-year smoker with lung cancer. A judge later slashed the award to $28 million, saying it was "a reasonable sum."
The previous record for a verdict won by an individual against a tobacco company was $3 billion, awarded in June 2001 to smoker Richard Boeken. A California judge later reduced that verdict to $100 million.
The major tobacco companies settled state lawsuits for smoking-related health care costs in 1998 for a total of $246 billion.
Over time, public policy has been moving against Big Tobacco.
The World Health Organization is now pushing governments to adopt sweeping anti-smoking restrictions. Florida joined four other states that have banned smoking in most indoor workplaces and restaurants. Arizona voters slapped smokers with a 60-cent-a-pack tax increase, while Missouri narrowly defeated a quadrupling of the cigarette tax.
personally, it's ridiculous that people are winning these lawsuits against the tobacco industry. Yes they did some shady things to attract underage smoking, and lying about addictions and whatnot. But, honestly, are people really not smoking anymore because they know this stuff? no.
What the people doing these lawsuits are saying is that they would never have smoked if they knew it was addictive. imo, that's bs.
yes, penalize the tobacco industry by forcing them to give money to help out communities and rebuild cities, and build boys and girls clubs, etc etc etc...but don't award individual smokers with billions of dollars.