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• Nearly all Marshall Islands stores selling tobacco to minors: survey 

A new survery has revealed that nearly all retail stores in the Marshall Islands are selling tobacco illegally to minors.

Officials who carried out unannounced inspections as part of the survey say they were amazed to find that 93 per cent of 129 stores, were breaking the law bey selling cigarettes and chewing tobacco to people under the age of 18.

The survey was part of a United States-funded substance abuse prevention and treatment program.

Ben Graham, the survey coordinator and the Marshall Islands ambassador to the United States says he was staggered by the results.

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• Marshall Islands Court Upholds Dismissal Of Tobacco Case; Countries Have No Special Claim To Courts, In U.S. Or Abroad 

A case brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands against the United States cigarette industry ended today with a ruling from the country's Supreme Court upholding the dismissal of the case for lack of evidence.

In a unanimous 18-page decision, the judges agreed with the lower court's ruling that the government's lawyers did not present adequate evidence to support their claim that the country suffered an economic loss as a result of alleged wrongful conduct by the tobacco industry. "A court cannot hold Tobacco liable for engaging in lawful activities (i.e. selling and distributing cigarettes in the Marshall Islands), " said the Court.

"Today's decision is an important one for the industry because it underscores the fact that, whether filed in the U.S. or abroad, suits by foreign countries against tobacco companies are unlikely to succeed. These governments must follow the same rules of law that apply to all other litigants, " said William S. Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris Cos. vice president and associate general counsel.

A federal district court in Washington D.C. has dismissed similar cases brought against the tobacco industry by the governments of Guatemala, Ukraine, Nicaragua and the Province of Ontario, Canada. Cases brought in state court in Florida by Venezuela, Ecuador and the Brazilian State of Espirito Santo have also been dismissed.

"Every federal appellate court in the United States to address the issue has upheld the dismissal of suits by third party payors of health care expenses, such as foreign governments, " Ohlemeyer said.

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• Islanders free to sue tobacco giants 

A US court has cleared the way for the Marshall Islands to launch an multi-billion dollar suit against US tobacco companies over health care costs related to smoking.

The tobacco companies had argued that courts in the Marshall Islands should be disqualified from hearing the case because of alleged political interference from the judiciary.

US Chief Justice Allen Fields said that claims put forward by the tobacco companies were hypocritical and without merit.

The tobacco companies had argued to the US Supreme Court that they could not get a fair trial because of the Marshall Islands' tribal system of chiefs or iroij, who they claimed influenced the courts. . .

Originally, the Marshall Islands had filed 11 charges claiming compensation of over $4bn against Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and the American Tobacco Co. but the US High Court dismissed all but one action, which will now go to trial in the Marshall Islands in September.

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• Tobacco Cos. Cleared of Most Marshall Islands Claims (Update1) 

A Marshall Islands judge has dismissed ten of 11 claims brought by the republic's government against Philip Morris Cos. and other U.S. tobacco companies in an effort to recoup expenses resulting from smoking-related diseases.

In the ruling last week, High Court Judge H. Dee Johnson said there was only enough evidence for one of the claims brought against the companies, a claim under the republic's consumer protection laws. . .

The suit had been seeking $4.6 billion in damages, which had the potential to be trebled. That dollar figure was the lawsuit's downfall, wrote Johnson in the decision.

``When applied to a small country of some 50,000 souls, it is breath-taking,'' wrote Johnson. ``These astronomical numbers badly damaged the credibility of the (Marshall Islands) in the public eye, in both the legal and political arenas.''

Seeking such a large sum made it look like the Marshall Islands was ``trying to use its own court system to extort these huge sums of money from the defendants,'' Johnson said.

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• American tobacco companies win Marshall Islands case 

American tobacco companies have won a major victory in the Marshall Islands with the High Court throwing out a multi-billion dollar suit brought by the government.

Judge H-Dee Johnson dismissed for lack of evidence 10 of the eleven charges the Marshall Islands had filed against four US tobacco companies. . .

In his 20-page opinion, Judge Johnson strongly criticised the Government's US-based legal team, whom he described as "salesmen peddling a lawsuit" who had not done their homework for their clients.

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