Tobacco companies to settle smoking lawsuits for $100 million
Category: Tobacco
More info: Mass Tort Litigation
Three major U.S. tobacco companies including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard, and Altria’s Philip Morris USA will pay $100 million to settle hundreds of federal lawsuits over smoking, according to an announcement from plaintiffs’ lawyers on Wednesday.
The agreement will cover more than 400 lawsuits filed in federal court in Florida by smokers or their families, according to the announcement. The settlement will not cover cases that have gone to trial or already reached a verdict.
Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds will each pay $42.5 million, and Lorillard will pay $15 million, according to a lead lawyer for plaintiffs, Joe Rice of law firm Motley Rice.
In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court overturned a $145 billion award for the class and ruled that plaintiffs had too many individual issues to proceed as a group. However, the court said plaintiffs could bring individual lawsuits based on findings from earlier in the litigation that nicotine is addictive and that tobacco use can cause a variety of diseases, including cancer.
After that ruling, thousands of cases were filed in Florida federal and state courts. In 2013, Liggett Group and its parent company Vector Group paid $110 million to nearly 5,000 smoking lawsuits against it.
Murray Garnick, associate general counsel for Altria Client Services, said the agreement was in the company’s best interests and that it intended to vigorously defend unsettled Engle cases, including those in state court.
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See the full, original post here: https://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/25/tobacco-companies-to-settle-smoking-lawsuits-for-100-million.html
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