Class Actions

• HeraldLink: A boost for class-action tobacco suit (Miami Herald)
  Herald Senior Writer For the first time anywhere, a jury heard testimony Wednesday about the hazards cigarette smoke can pose to nonsmokers. ``I think it's a moral responsibility, a public responsibility, for companies to be frank with the public,'' Richmond told Cofer.
  First found: 17 Jul 1997, 17:02 Universal Time
• Tobacco industry's research suggested cancer, court told (Philadelphia Inquirer)
  MIAMI -- The tobacco industry's own research in the 1960s and 1970s helped create a medical consensus that smoking causes cancer, a former U.S. surgeon general said yesterday as testimony got under way at a $5 billion secondhand-smoke trial. Testimony is scheduled to continue today and is expected to last until at least September.
  First found: 17 Jul 1997, 11:53 Universal Time
• Research Proved Danger (ABC News)
       “No one had seen the report,” said Richardson, testifying for the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit.     It is both the first secondhand-smoke case and the first class-action lawsuit against the U.S. tobacco industry to come to trial.
  First found: 17 Jul 1997, 11:53 Universal Time
• Tobacco Trial Lawyers Assail Secondhand Smoke Risks (Washington Post)
  e. Jurors must decide a key question in the landmark $5 billion case without specific scientific evidence, Hardy said.
  First found: 16 Jul 1997, 16:47 Universal Time
• Fighting the Smoky Skies (ABC News)
       The attendants’ suit is the first tobacco class-action case to reach trial, and the first secondhand-smoke trial.     The videotaped depositions from executives of other tobacco companies will be shown in court.
  First found: 16 Jul 1997, 02:17 Universal Time
• Secondhand smoke trial opens with lots of drama, objections (Miami Herald)
  It is the largest single damage claim -- and the first secondhand smoke lawsuit -- ever to come to trial against the tobacco industry. They all followed Rosenblatt as he spoke from the lectern, gestured expansively with his hands and arms, leaned into a corner of the jury box as he displayed exhibits and outlined his case.
  First found: 15 Jul 1997, 16:58 Universal Time
• Secondhand-smoke trial begins (Philadelphia Inquirer)
  MIAMI -- A $5 billion lawsuit by flight attendants who say that passengers' smoke harmed their health went to trial yesterday with an attorney accusing the tobacco industry of singing a ``phony song'' about the dangers of cigarettes. Stanley Rosenblatt, an attorney for the 60,000 current and former flight attendants represented in the class-action case, opened the landmark trial by accusing the...
  First found: 15 Jul 1997, 16:58 Universal Time
• Fighting the Smoky Skies (ABC News)
       The attendants’ suit may be only the first of many such class actions against the tobacco industry by employee groups, observers say.     The attendants’ suit is the first tobacco class-action case to reach trial, and the first secondhand-smoke trial.
  First found: 15 Jul 1997, 16:58 Universal Time
• Judge denies bid to delay of Florida tobacco trial: (Reuters)
  A Florida judge on Thursday denied a tobacco industry motion to delay a landmark, $5 billion secondhand smoke trial, a court spokesman said.
  Jul 10 8:37 PM EDT
• Flying the Smoky Skies (ABC News)
       An estimated 60,000 nonsmoking flight attendants are seeking $5 billion in damages in the first secondhand-smoke case and first tobacco class-action suit ever to reach trial.     The attendants charge that cigarette smoke in aircraft cabins made them sick and that the tobacco industry deceived the American public for decades about hazards to nonsmokers.
  First found: 10 Jul 1997, 12:48 Universal Time
• Union health-care funds suing tobacco companies (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
  Health-care trust funds have filed class-action lawsuits against tobacco companies in 16 states since May to recoup expenses for smoking-related sicknesses, and lawsuits are likely to be filed in nine or 10 other states, an attorney helping to coordinate the lawsuits said yesterday.
  Wednesday, July 9, 1997
• The Washington Times - Business (Washington Times)
  ... group of Illinois smokers has filed a class-action lawsuit against tobacco manufacturers, challenging limits on the right to sue that are a key part of the proposed $368.5 billion settlement of health claims against the industry. "If you divide that into their number, a death claim is worth only $7,000."
  First found: 9 Jul 1997, 12:01 Universal Time
• Lawyer sues over tobacco deal: (UPI)
  Attorney Kenneth Moll says the agreement between more than three dozen states and the tobacco industry will compromise the rights of individuals and he has filed suit challenging that part of the agreement that protects cigarette-makers from future suits. - Jul 08 11:59 AM ED
• Labor-Management Health Funds Join Hands to Sue Big Tobacco; Seeking Reimbursement for Medical Bills: (PRNewswire)
  A grouping of labor-management operated multiemployer health care funds (Taft-Hartley Funds) in 14 states with class action lawsuits pending against the tobacco industry, today announced the creation of a coalition to coordinate their activities at the national level. - Jul 08 10:29 AM EDT
• HeraldLink: Judge: Smoke case will not be derailed (Miami Herald)
  Herald Senior Writer The judge in the secondhand smoke lawsuit signaled Monday that he would not allow the $5 billion class action by flight attendants to be derailed by a so-called global settlement of anti-tobacco lawsuits. Responding to a motion filed by the flight attendants' lawyers, Kaye said he can envision a ``very serious constitutional'' clash if federal judges or officials attempt to...
  First found: 17 Jun 1997, 21:43 Universal Time
• Lawyer: let tobacco suit proceed: (UPI)
  Lawyers for the plaintiffs will request (Monday) that a class action by flight attendants can proceed in Miami even if the tobacco industry reaches a so-called ``global'' settlement on other outstanding suits.
  - Jun 16 7:48 AM EDT
• Class-action tobacco suit suspended: (UPI)
  The jury selection process is suspended until Monday in a Miami class-action trial on whether nonsmoking flight attendants contracted cancer and other respiratory diseases from secondhand smoke.
  - Jun 11 1:01 PM EDT
• Liggett Deal Suddenly Seems Sour (National Law Journal)
  Opponents said the settlement extinguished plaintiffs' right to sue Liggett but provided almost nothing in return. The settlement "buys global peace for Liggett but provides no relief for the class," said Ms.
  First found: 10 Jun 1997, 21:29 Universal Time
• Union health fund sues tobacco industry (UPI)
  Massachusetts Laborers' Health and Welfare Fund has filed a class action lawsuit against the tobacco industry. The fund says (Monday) the suit seeks to recover expenses incurred for the treatment of participants and beneficiaries suffering from smoking- related illnesses.
  June 9 12:10 PM EDT
• HeraldLink: Employers can't be sued in smoke case (Miami Herald)
  Many people -- including potential jurors -- are asking that question as jury selection resumes today in the secondhand smoke lawsuit against tobacco companies. As a result, Fischl said, third-party claims like the flight attendants' action against tobacco companies are becoming more widespread.
  First found: 9 Jun 1997, 12:48 Universal Time
• Experts: Tobacco Won Round One in Secondhand Smoke Trial (Fox News)
  "The tobacco lawyers are maneuvering very well to get jurors excused for cause," said Stanley Rosenblatt, who along with his wife is pressing the landmark flight-attendants lawsuit. "They don't want anyone educated who knows that secondhand smoke causes disease."
  First found: 9 Jun 1997, 21:37 Universal Time
• Class-Action Status Denied in Pa. Smoking Suit (Washington Post)
  National Breaking News: 24-hour-a-day updates in the Today's Top News section. "The reality of this litigation is that there are simply too many individual issues and class members to try this case efficiently.
  First found: 5 Jun 1997, 11:58 Universal Time
• Attitudes dirty the air on jury selection (Philadelphia Inquirer)
  Only five of 15 prospective jurors survived the opening day of questioning Monday, and they were not guaranteed to be part of a six-member panel plus six to 12 alternates. Some prospective jurors said the attendants could quit their jobs to avoid exposure or that the airlines, which are not a target of the lawsuit, are responsible.
  First found: 4 Jun 1997, 18:26 Universal Time
• Secondhand smoke-trial judge, tobacco lawyers clash on jurors: (Reuters)
  Tobacco-industry lawyers in the $5 billion Broin secondhand smoke case on Tuesday touched off a testy outburst from the trial judge, who accused them of muddling the minds of prospective jurors with trick questions.
  - Jun 03 7:39 PM EDT
• Trial set against cig firms (Philadelphia Daily News)
  McQuown, who lost one breast to cancer in 1991, is one of 26 nonsmoking flight attendants who have filed a $5 billion class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry, blaming in-flight cigarette smoke for making them sick. The government ordered the creation of separate smoking and nonsmoking sections on passenger planes in 1972, then barred smoking on domestic flights of less than two hours in...
  First found: 3 Jun 1997, 11:14 Universal Time
• Judge Lets Second-hand Smoke Lawsuit Proceed (Fox News)
  2.31 p.m. EDT (1831 GMT) June 2, 1997 MIAMI A judge refused Monday to decertify class-action status in a secondhand-smoke lawsuit by airline flight attendants against the tobacco industry, allowing jury selection to begin in the landmark case. Judge Robert Kaye also refused the tobacco companies' motion to deny the flight attendants' request for punitive damages in the class-action lawsuit known...
  First found: 2 Jun 1997, 21:15 Universal Time
• Landmark Tobacco Lawsuit Begins (Fox News)
  Flight Attendant Broin, a lung cancer survivor, is the lead plaintiff in the class action case against the tobacco industry MIAMI — Jury selection began Monday in a $5 billion class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of 60,000 nonsmoking flight attendants who claim smoke in aircraft cabins made them sick. At Monday's pretrial hearing, Judge Robert Kaye refused the tobacco companies' motion to...
  First found: 3 Jun 1997, 11:14 Universal Time
• The Smoking Gun (Washington Post)
• New Assault on Tobacco (ABC News)
       This is the first class-action suit and the first secondhand-smoke case to come to trial against the tobacco industry.     Nevertheless, after six years of waiting, American Airlines attendant Patty Young, a plaintiff in court on a day off, said she was excited that the trial has started.
  First found: 3 Jun 1997, 11:14 Universal Time
• HeraldLink: Historic tobacco trial begins (Miami Herald)
  As the trial date loomed, the industry nearly buried the Rosenblatts and the judge with motions. The jury will not be sequestered, but prospective jurors already have been warned not to read or view any accounts of the case.
  First found: 2 Jun 1997, 11:33 Universal Time
• HeraldLink: JUROR QUESTIONNAIRE (Miami Herald)
  Do you, any member of your family, any relative or close friend presently own or lease or have you ever owned or leased property in the major tobacco-producing states -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky or West Virginia? Do you have any negative feelings or attitudes against plaintiffs' lawyers who represent individuals who claim to have been damaged as a result of the actions...
  First found: 2 Jun 1997, 11:33 Universal Time
• Nonsmoker's Suit Presents New Challenge for Industry (Washington Post)
  "The superior way to proceed, and the only manageable way," the tobacco companies argued, "is for individual flight attendants who genuinely believe they have a personal injury claim, to pursue those claims in individual lawsuits." (Since 1990, all of the airline's domestic flights have been nonsmoking, and beginning July 1, all of its international flights will ban smoking too.
  First found: 31 May 1997, 11:17 Universal Time
• Tobacco challenges class-action suit (UPI)
  Tobacco industry attorneys argue the $5 billion suit on behalf of as many as 60,000 flight attendants cannot equitably be resolved as it currently stands. . . . Miami attorney Stanley Rosenblatt, who represents the flight attendants, calls the 11th hour motion ``frivolous,'' adding that decertification arguments have been considered by an appellate court and were rejected in 1994.
  Friday May 30 10:55 AM EDT
• Tobacco wars move to 30,000 feet (MS-NBC)
          This time it’s non-smoking flight attendants who claim they got cancer and other diseases by working near people who smoked.         “I have the advantage, which I consider to be a significant advantage, that my clients, the non-smoking flight attendants who had to work in that environment to keep their job — they are obviously...
  First found: 30 May 1997, 11:37 Universal Time
• HeraldLink: Lawyers edgy as smoking trial approaches (Miami Herald)
  He said state law required each of the 28 named plaintiffs to specify precise industry statements that made them believe secondhand smoke was harmless. Submitting five volumes of industry ads as evidence, she said the tobacco industry lied for years about the known health risks of cigarette smoke.
  First found: 29 May 1997, 21:12 Universal Time
• HeraldLink: Flight attendants hope smoke trial proceeds (Miami Herald)
  Herald Senior Writer Fearing that their long-delayed journey to trial could be grounded by distant events, flight attendants battling the tobacco industry urged a Dade County judge Tuesday to remain on course. The class-action lawsuit is scheduled to begin Monday, despite so-called ``global'' talks that could resolve many suits now facing the industry.
  First found: 28 May 1997, 21:14 Universal Time
• Key memo - a document - allowed in Fla. tobacco case: (Reuters)
  One of the documents that a Florida judge ruled Tuesday could be used by plaintiffs in an upcoming secondhand smoke trial is a 1963 memo in which former Brown & Williamson general counsel Addison Yeaman indicated nicotine was an addictive drug.
  - May 27 3:44 PM EDT
• B&W Reports Missouri Court Dismisses Class Action Suit (PR Newswire)
  Although Judge Ortrie D. Smith found that potential members in the class action claimed certain common issues in a general sense, "resolution of these issues will have little to no legal or practical significance for this case." In light of the significant individual issues in the case, Judge Smith found certification of a class would not promote judicial economy, but would rather "create...
  First found: 27 May 1997, 22:21 Universal Time
• Brown BATS.L papers at issue in Fla. tobacco suit: (Reuters)
  Brown & Williamson documents considered critical in a major tobacco industry defeat last year were at issue Friday as attorneys prepared for a landmark class-action lawsuit filed by flight attendants who claim they were sickened by secondhand smoke.
  - May 23 5:19 PM EDT
• Latest Tobacco Headache: Flight Attendants' Case (National Law Journal)
  For a plaintiff to win, the jury has to be convinced that the tobacco companies' behavior is more blameworthy than the plaintiff's decision to smoke. The tobacco companies hope the jury finds the link between secondhand smoke and the class plaintiffs' injuries to be too tenuous.
  First found: 21 May 1997, 21:12 Universal Time
• Judge clears way for Miami tobacco suit: (UPI)
  A south Florida judge has ruled (Tuesday) a class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry may proceed as scheduled June 2.
  - May 20 7:58 AM EDT
• U.S. District Court Enjoins All Tobacco-Related Lawsuits Against The Liggett Group: (PRNewswire)
  Today, Chief Judge Charles H. Haden, II (United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia) preliminarily enjoined all lawsuits against The Liggett Group based on tobacco injury and loss.
  - May 15 5:20 PM EDT
• Tobacco asks to delay Fla secondhand smoke lawsuit: (Reuters)
  The tobacco industry Tuesday asked a Florida judge to delay the trial of a landmark secondhand smoke class action lawsuit filed by airline flight attendants, saying there were dozens of witnesses still to be deposed. - May 13 8:17 PM EDT
• Cigarette Litigants to Joust Over Labeling Act (National Law Journal)
  Lawyers representing tobacco companies will argue before Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos on Wednesday that five potential state class-action suits are preempted by the federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act and should be dismissed. The tobacco industry contends in court papers that the Labeling Act, which required cigarette manufacturers to place warnings on their products,...
  First found: 12 May 1997, 21:11 Universal Time
• Tobacco Litigation (National Law Journal)
  The current litigation represents the ''third wave'' of cases against the tobacco industry, explained Richard A. Daynard, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law and chair of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, who also spoke at the Pace seminar. The asbestos cases also provided plaintiffs' attorneys with a blueprint for taking on the tobacco industry by filing a series of class...
  First found: 1 May 1997, 22:56 Universal Time
• Tobacco Exec Likens Smoking Habit to Gummy Bears (5/2) (Your Health Daily)
  Morgan then added, ``If they are behaviorally addictive or habit-forming, they are much more like caffeine, or in my case, Gummy Bears,'' according to Stanley Rosenblatt, the Miami attorney who conducted the deposition last month and taped it. The executives have denied that cigarettes are addictive, echoing similar statements by executives to Congress in 1994 that triggered a continuing perjury...
  First found: 3 May 1997, 11:30 Universal Time
• Lawsuit immunity for tobacco firms strongly opposed: Officials balk on key settlement issues (Boston Globe)
  ``They have taken a very hard line on immunity,'' said James E. Tierney, former attorney general of Maine, who is assisting the 23 attorneys general suing the tobacco industry to recoup Medicaid costs incurred by sick smokers.
  First found: 23 Apr 1997, 11:47 Universal Time
• Under oath, tobacco executives insist smoking not deadly (Fox News)
  MIAMI (AP) -- Four top tobacco company executives said under oath that smoking cannot kill despite Liggett Group's admission a month ago that smoking is addictive and can cause cancer. Schindler and other executives testified repeatedly that, as far as they are concerned, smoking is nothing more than a "risk factor'' for cancer and other diseases.
  First found: 21 Apr 1997, 22:23 Universal Time
• Tobacco execs still blowing smoke (Philadelphia Daily News)
  MIAMI -- A month after the Liggett Group admitted that smoking causes cancer and is addictive, executives of the nation's top four tobacco companies still say tobacco does not kill, a newspaper reported yesterday. Despite the settlement, thousands of scientific studies and newly released, damning documents from their own companies, the executives said they still don't believe that tobacco is...
  First found: 21 Apr 1997, 11:38 Universal Time
• New Orleans judge certifies tobacco class: (Reuters)
  A civil district judge in New Orleans has certified a state class action lawsuit brought by Louisiana smokers against the tobacco industry, plaintiffs lawyers said Wednesday.
  - Apr 16 6:24 PM EDT
• Cig makers fight novel image (Philadelphia Daily News)
  The novel's title has become shorthand for anti-tobacco lawyers who are concerned that life might imitate art -- something that angers the lawyers representing tobacco firms. Anti-tobacco lawyers repeatedly assert that tobacco companies, with their deep ranks of lawyers and strong financial resources, can easily outmatch them in jury selection.
  First found: 8 Apr 1997, 11:22 Universal Time
• Fla. Judge Orders Liggett to Turn Over Papers (Fox News)
  Liggett is trying to use the settlement to settle all individual smokers' lawsuits against the company, but attorneys in the Engle case have said they will not be a part of any settlement. Miami attorney Stanley Rosenblatt asked Postman to declare the Liggett settlment "a nullity with regard to Engle,'' arguing that Liggett could not use the national settlement to effectively opt out as a...
  First found: 30 Mar 1997, 21:56 Universal Time
• Lawyer won't appeal rejection of claims in class-action tobacco suit (Fox News)
  MIAMI (AP) -- A lawyer for a half million Floridians suffering from smoking related illnesses won't appeal a judge's rejection of the bulk of their claims against cigarette makers. Postman allowed the plaintiffs to continue with claims alleging cigarette makers committed fraud and misrepresented its research over the years.
  First found: 3 Apr 1997, 13:30 Universal Time
• Fla. Judge Orders Liggett to Turn Over Papers (Fox News)
  Liggett is trying to use the settlement to settle all individual smokers' lawsuits against the company, but attorneys in the Engle case have said they will not be a part of any settlement. Miami attorney Stanley Rosenblatt asked Postman to declare the Liggett settlment "a nullity with regard to Engle,'' arguing that Liggett could not use the national settlement to effectively opt out as a...
  First found: 30 Mar 1997, 21:56 Universal Time
• Settlement would protect Liggett from future smoker suits (Fox News)
  (AP) -- The Liggett Group, which stunned the tobacco industry by settling with 22 states suing over tobacco-related medical costs, would be safe from any smoking claims under a proposal in a little-known lawsuit filed here. The proposal, which already has the tentative approval of a state judge, would bar pending and future lawsuits against the cigarette maker -- including those of smokers, their...
  First found: 26 Mar 1997, 00:05 Universal Time
• Video questioning of tobacco execs due in April: (Reuter)
  Videotaped questioning of leading tobacco company executives will begin April 15 in New York, a plaintiffs' lawyer in two Florida class-action suits against cigarette companies said on Monday.
  - Mar 10 3:36 PM EST
•  Judge orders witness-list swap in tobacco trial:(Reuter)
  A Florida judge on Monday ordered rival lawyers to exchange witness lists in a class-action suit for non-smoking flight attendants allegedly made sick by second-hand smoke.  
  - Feb 10 2:44 PM EST 
•  Classs-action "smoker" claims tobacco co. intimidation: (Reuter)
  The Florida judge in a class-action suit against tobacco groups Thursday allowed one of the pioneering case's lead smokers to take a back seat in the upcoming trial after he complained of intimidation. -  
  Feb 06 8:26 PM EST 
• Statewide Class Action Seeks Compensation for Florida Smokers Suffering From Medical Conditions Caused by Cigarette Smoking (PR Newswire)
  Statewide Class Action Seeks Compensation for Florida Smokers Suffering From Medical Conditions Caused by Cigarette Smoking Injured Citizens Not Wishing to Participate Must Take Action by July 15, 1997 MIAMI, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Dade County Circuit Court Judge Alan L. Postman has ordered that all Florida citizens and residents, and their survivors, who have suffered, presently suffer or who... 
  First found: 6 Feb 1997, 15:05 Universal Time