THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 18, 1995 TAG: 9502180514
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GLENN COLLINS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
A federal judge Friday cleared the way for the first nationwide class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry on behalf of the nearly 100 million Americans who smoke or have quit smoking.
The judge ruled that the tobacco industry could be sued for punitive damages on accusations of addicting huge numbers of cigarette smokers and of concealing the fact that cigarettes were addicting.
In his decision, District Judge Okla B. Jones II of the U.S. Eastern District of Louisiana has not only created the possibility for the largest class action in history, but he has also exposed the tobacco companies to their most formidable legal challenge yet. So far, they have never had to pay any money penalties in court.
``The decision poses a greater threat to the tobacco industry than any prior lawsuit,'' said Matthew L. Myers, counsel to the Coalition on Smoking or Health, a Washington-based group composed of the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association.
He added: ``There is the potential for a staggering punitive damage award in this case, which has the potential for changing the way the tobacco industry does business for all time.''
The lawsuit is expected to seek the first class-action ruling from a jury on the existence of nicotine dependency and will attempt to collect billions of dollars in damages from cigarette makers for a group of nicotine-dependent smokers reaching back 50 years.
In seeking to represent as many as 40 million current smokers, as well as an estimated 50 million people who have quit smoking, the lawsuit could dwarf the largest class ever certified, the 40 million to 50 million people who sued major airlines in 1991 for overcharging.
The plaintiffs' lawsuit was filed last March in the U.S. Eastern District of Louisiana by Dianne Castano, the widow of a smoker who died of cancer, and three other plaintiffs.
The lawsuit accuses seven major tobacco manufacturers, their related companies, and the Tobacco Institute, an industry group, of negligence, fraud and deceit. The companies are American Tobacco Co., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Philip Morris Inc., Liggett & Myers Inc., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and United States Tobacco Co. by CNB