ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 2, 1996 TAG: 9609030090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
States suing tobacco companies are working on a possible settlement to give the companies immunity from lawsuits, but Mississippi's attorney general said he doesn't expect much from the effort.
Executives of two of the biggest companies denied they're meeting with anybody about a deal. ``I don't know who he's talking to,'' Steve Parrish, a Philip Morris vice president, said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation.
In discussing reported negotiations on a deal, Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore said on the same program: ``We'll settle, but only if it makes good sense for everybody - good public sense.
``I'm not sure the tobacco companies are willing to pay the kind of price that we're going to ask.''
``I expect to meet them in court, and I expect to beat them in court,'' said Moore, who made Mississippi the first state to sue to recover government expenditures to treat patients made ill by tobacco.
Fifteen states are now suing, Moore said, and the tobacco industry is facing additional scrutiny from Congress and the White House about teen smoking. Attorneys general from the 15 states have appointed seven of their number to negotiate a proposed settlement, he said.
But he said his main emphasis is the courtroom. ``We filed our lawsuit about 2 1/2 years ago, and we're approaching trial,'' Moore said. ``We think we'll beat the tobacco companies here in Mississippi in March.''
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB