Court Declines Tobacco Appeal
Tobacco companies lost a bid for U.S. Supreme Court review of a decision that will aid Florida smoking plaintiffs in future lawsuits.
The court refused to hear the case yesterday, Bloomberg News reports.
The Florida Supreme Court had ruled that smoking plaintiffs may rely on a 1999 jury finding that the companies misled smokers about the risks of cigarettes and sold unreasonably dangerous products.
The case, originally filed as a class action, had produced a $145 billion punitive damages award. The Florida Supreme Court refused to uphold the award, saying the case should not have been certified as a class action, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub req.). But the Florida court said individual suits could be pursued that rely on the jury findings.
Cigarette makers had argued that those findings were vague, and using them in future cases would violate the due process clause.
