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Imperial weathers steeper-than-expected fall in cigarette sales  

Sales of cigarettes fell further than expected in England after the introduction of the ban on smoking in public places, Imperial Tobacco said yesterday.

The ban was timed for the summer in order to mitigate the effects as pubgoers were expected to enjoy a smoke outdoors but the terrible weather and almost constant rain meant many smokers cut down onlighting up instead.

Imperial Tobacco said the market took a 4 per cent hit by the end of September from the ban which came into force on 1 July. This was 2 per cent higher than had been expected.

"Once the initial impact of public smoking bans has dissipated, we expect annual cigarette market declines of 3 to 4 per cent in line with the long term trend," its chief executive, Gareth Davis, said.

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Brown & Williamson: Tennessee Court of Appeals Dismisses Union Fund Case Against Tobacco Companies 

In Steamfitters Local Union Health and Welfare Fund, et. al. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, et. al., the union health and welfare funds and their trade associations brought an action against tobacco companies to recover the funds' costs of treating their participants' smoking related illnesses. The court agreed with Brown & Williamson that the alleged injuries were too remote as a matter of law.

``Tobacco companies have been victorious in all union fund appellate court decisions,'' said B&W attorney Mitch Neuhauser. ``This court's opinion supports the previous decisions from seven federal circuit courts of appeal which had rejected nearly identical claims.''

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• B&W Tobacco: Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Dismissal of Union Fund Suit 

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court's decision to dismiss a lawsuit against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation and other tobacco companies by a union fund seeking to recover health care costs from alleged tobacco-related illnesses.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Unions and Employers Health and Welfare Fund sued to recover certain costs allegedly incurred due to tobacco- related illnesses. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed with Brown & Williamson that the plaintiff's assertions fail to state a claim under Alabama law.

"The Eleventh Circuit said the fund's claim fails because a health care provider has no direct tort action against a party who allegedly injures its beneficiary," said Kendrick

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Appeals Court Prods Judge To Determine Status Of Unions' Tobacco Suit 

A federal appeals court prodded a lower court judge to decide whether to grant class-action status to a suit filed by a group of union health funds against the tobacco industry.

In a ruling Friday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was confident that U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein in Brooklyn, N.Y., would decide the matter "promptly," but stopped short of issuing an emergency order that would have compelled him to do so.

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• Appeals Court Urges Decision on Certifying Tobacco Class Action 

A federal appeals court today urged a judge to decide whether to certify as a class action a suit by union health funds against Philip Morris Cos. Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Inc., and other tobacco giants. . .

The trial judge, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein in Brooklyn, has put off deciding whether to certify the case. The tobacco companies believe federal law requires Weinstein to deny certification, and they have urged the judge to rule.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected a request by the companies to compel Weinstein to decide. But it strongly urged him to do so, saying, ``We are confident that the district court will promptly discharge its obligation to decide the issue.''

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FOCUS-Labor tobacco suits dismissed in New York 

A New York state court justice has dismissed 10 labor union health care reimbursement cases against tobacco companies, saying the health plans had no legal standing to bring direct claims againt the industry.

Tobacco analysts called the decision another ``data point'' marking the industry's progress towards its goal of getting such lawsuits thrown out, even before they go to trial.

``This is just one more event that highlights all of the favorable rulings that we've seen in the last year,'' Bonnie Herzog of Credit Suisse First Boston told Reuters.

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Tobacco Companies Win Dismissal of Union Funds Suit (Update2) 

The 5th Circuit decision written by Judge Edith Jones echoes four earlier federal appeals court rulings. . .

``Agreeing with the essential holdings of the circuit court opinions, we have no need to write further and affirm the district court's dismissal of this case,'' Jones wrote.

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Philip Morris, Others Win Dismissal of Union Suit (Update1) 

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's decision to throw out the suit against the funds, finding the supposed harm suffered by the plaintiffs was too removed from the tobacco companies' alleged wrongdoing to permit an award.

The decision also reversed another lower court ruling that had allowed the Blue Cross insurers' claims to go forward.

``The problem for both the Funds and the Blues is not that they deal with smokers rather than with providers of medical care but that they do not deal with tobacco producers, the supposed wrongdoers,'' Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote in the opinion. . . Plaintiffs in the case decided by the 7th Circuit included the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 734 Health and Welfare Trust Fund; Central States Joint Board Health and Welfare Trust Fund; and Blue Cross & Blue Shield associations of Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, and North Dakota.

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Judge blows off smoking suit claim 

U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole dismissed nearly every claim brought by the Massachusetts Laborers' Health & Welfare Fund, a union plan that says it has paid out millions of dollars for smoking related illnesses.

It is the first time O'Toole, who is overseeing more than 35 individual tobacco suits, has ruled on key arguments underlying all the cases. . . Since the 1950s, there has been ``well publicized'' evidence and warnings about the effects of cigarette smoking on health, wrote O'Toole. Smokers or other plaintiffs could have weighed the conflicting information and decided not to smoke, the ruling suggests.

``The complaint offers no basis for concluding that it was reasonable for the plaintiff to rely on the defendants' information as opposed to the contradictory information from other sources also in the public domain . . . the deficiency is fatal,'' wrote O'Toole.

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The complaint offers no basis for concluding that it was reasonable for the plaintiff to rely on the defendants' information as opposed to the contradictory information from other sources also in the public domain.
Information War strategy is addressed by U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole in his ruling which dismissed nearly every claim brought by the Massachusetts Laborers' Health & Welfare Fund. Quoted in <i>Judge blows off smoking suit claim</i>

Court denies union chance to collectively sue tobacco 

The decision by US District Judge George O'Toole said the Massachusetts Laborer's Health & Welfare Fund cannot sue the tobacco industry on behalf of all its members who smoked and got sick. Instead, O'Toole said the union fund must try the cases of individual members who smoked.

O'Toole broke some ground in Massachusetts by finding that the liability of the tobacco industry should not be determined solely by whether it told the public how much human health may be harmed by smoking.

Instead, O'Toole found that the information available to smokers must be considered in total, given how much is known generally about the hazards of tobacco.

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