Tobacco.org

CITY OF ST. LOUIS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. AMERICAN TOBACCO COMPANY, INC., et al., Defendants 

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

WEBBER, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court upon plaintiffs' Motion to Remand [Document # 23].

I. STATEMENT OF RELEVANT FACTS.

On November 16, 1998, the plaintiffs filed a petition against defendants in the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, Cause No. 982-9656, styled City of St. Louis, et al. v. American Tobacco Company, Inc., et al. (hereinafter referred to as the "state action"). The plaintiffs in the action include one municipality and a number of hospitals and medical care entities. The defendants are cigarette manufacturers, distributors, and other similar entities. 1011*1011 In this action, plaintiffs allege that defendants, through conduct including, but not limited to, the manufacture, advertising, sale and promotion of tobacco products in the state of Missouri, have caused damage the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that other defendants, through conduct including, but not limited to, the sale, distribution, promotion and advertising of tobacco products in Missouri, have damaged the plaintiffs. This latter group of defendants (hereinafter referred to as the "Distributor Defendants"), are all citizens of the State of Missouri. Plaintiffs allege that they have suffered damage, because the defendants fraudulently and falsely promoted, advertised, and sold highly addictive tobacco products that cause lung cancer, throat cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and other diseases. Plaintiffs claim that in discharging their governmental public benefit functions, they were required to provide unreimbursed healthcare to Medicaid and medically indigent patients for these tobacco related illnesses caused by defendants' addictive tobacco products. For this reason, plaintiffs bring a variety of claims to recover these damages from the defendants, including a claim in Count VII for public nuisance, in Counts VIII and IX for products liability based upon strict liability, in Count X for products liability based upon negligence, and in Count XI a cause of action based upon the Restatement of Restitution § 115.

On December 17, 1998, defendants removed the plaintiffs' action to this Court, alleging that this Court has diversity jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. Defendants allege that diversity of jurisdiction exists in this case, because plaintiffs have fraudulently joined the Distributor Defendants in this cause of action for the purpose of insuring state court jurisdiction. On January 29, 1999, plaintiffs filed the instant motion to remand this action to the Missouri court system, contending that this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, because they have established their causes of action against the Distributor Defendants. . . .

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiffs' Motion to Remand [Document # 23] is GRANTED.

Jump to full article »

• Giant jury pool considered for big-stakes St. Louis trial 

Do you have some time on your hands?

That's what the St. Louis Circuit Court is asking in 6,000 surveys mailed to potential jurors during the past month.

It's part of selecting 12 city residents, plus alternates, to hear what is expected to be the city's longest civil jury trial here in memory.

This billion-dollar tobacco-related case is scheduled to begin in January and could last six to seven months, officials said.

The jury supervisor's office mailed the questionnaires in four batches, beginning in August. Responses have begun trickling back to the courthouse.

The results will help Judge Michael David weed out people for whom the trial length would pose hardships. Those may include health problems, child care, work or travel commitments. . . .

The tobacco companies say the hospitals were not the ones damaged by cigarettes so they cannot collect money for someone else's health problems, according to court documents.

Experts expect it to set precedents for similar cases across the country, as it is the only one of its kind to leap some legal hurdles that killed more than 160 similar cases in courts across the country.

The hospitals are seeking to recover losses for patients treated since 1993, which is potentially $1 billion.

Jump to full article »

• Search on for jurors to hear longest trial in memory 

The St. Louis court system is looking for the jury that could hear the longest civil trial in memory.

The trial is not expected to start until January but the circuit court has sent questionnaires out to 6,000 people as the first step in finding the 12 and alternates who will hear a lawsuit that already is 12 years old.

More than 30 hospitals and the city of St. Louis are suing American Tobacco, claiming they are owed millions of dollars for caring for smokers.

Jump to full article »

Dave Woods, The Booze Beat: Smoking bans not popular with bar patron?  

The effort to ban smoking in bars and restaurants -- any indoor space, for that matter -- is heating up in Southwest Missouri.

The Webb City council on Monday night voted to take a closer look at the issue and have a proposed ordinance drafted, which would ban smoking in public places. The local group pushing the issue, The Clean Air Project, is looking for support for the smoke-free idea and has approached other city governments, as well.

Joplin officials will hold a public hearing this fall to take the public's temperature and the Carl Junction Chamber of Commerce has taken a poll of residents to see where they stand on the subject.

I don't really have a dog in this fight. I smoked cigarettes during my Navy years and was in the last boot camp company in Orlando, Fla., where smoking was allowed. . . .

Earlier this week I decided to head out and see what some folks in Joplin think about going smoke-free in Joplin's watering holes. I stopped in at Rumors Lounge,1825 W. Seventh St. in Joplin, and sat down next to a guy with whom I sometimes swap stories and drink beer. . . .

Where the dangers of second-hand smoke are concern, Dave is unconvinced.

"I'm don't know about second hand smoke," he said "They say it's bad, but I don't know. Being a smoker right now, I wouldn't go into a bar where I couldn't smoke. I'd grab a 12-pack and a carton of cigarettes and just go home where I can still smoke -- at least for now."

Jump to full article »

Webb City Council to consider ban on smoking  

The City Council has joined the debate on whether to ban indoor smoking in public places.

Following a push by Smoke-Free Webb City, a local coalition that is partially funded by Missouri Foundation for Health, the council voted 6-2 on Monday to allow a ban on smoking to be brought before the public as either an ordinance or through a public hearing.

Council members already seemed split on the issue of whether to ban smoking in places such as restaurants. Councilman Brandon Wilson was one of the most vocal opponents to the proposed measure.

Jump to full article »

CAP: Not anti-smoker, just anti-smoke 

Smoke Free Joplin, Smoke Free Webb City and Smoke Free Carl Junction coalitions have approached their respective city councils to push for a ban on smoking in businesses, including bars and restaurants. Each council is in a different phase of examining a possible smoking ban, but Krista Stark, event coordinator and health promotions specialist for the Clean Air Project (CAP), based on the Missouri Southern State University campus, hopes all three will adopt a 100 percent ban on smoking in businesses.

Other cities in Missouri, including Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia, have total indoor smoking bans. Springfield has a ban with exemptions. Businesses can be exempted based on their capacity or number of seats and the amount of profits made from alcohol, essentially allowing bars to permit smoking.

"The opposition was that it would put people out of business and that it regulated something that should be a choice," said Mike Brothers, an interim director of public information for the city of Springfield.

But the discussion persists in Springfield.

"It is a polarizing issue and one that has involved a lot of discussion," Brothers said. "(The council's) trying to come to an agreement everyone can live with."

Jump to full article »

Branson, MO Bans Smoking In City Cars and Buildings  

The Board of Alderman Tuesday night approved an amendment to the city code prohibiting the use of any tobacco product in city vehicles, buildings, or offices.

Jump to full article »

Body mass index and regular smoking in young adult women 

Little is known about the relationship between relative body weight and transition from experimentation to regular smoking in young adult women. In the current study, data from 2494 participants in wave 4 of the Missouri Adolescent Female Twin Study (aged 18–29 years) who reported ever smoking a cigarette were analyzed using logistic regression. . . .

Forty-five percent of women who had ever smoked had become regular smokers. Testing of interactions between potential covariates and levels of the categorical BMI variable revealed a significant interaction between overweight/obesity and childhood sexual abuse (CSA; p < 0.001) associated with regular smoking. Among women reporting CSA, the association between overweight/obesity and having become a regular smoker was negative (n = 374; OR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.28–0.81). Both underweight and overweight/obesity were positively associated with transition to regular smoking among women who did not report CSA (n = 2076; OR = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.05–2.35 and OR = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.35–2.20, respectively). These results suggest that experiencing CSA alters the association between BMI and regular smoking in women who have experimented with cigarettes.

Jump to full article »

City expands smoking ban 

Just weeks after Clayton's smoking ban in restaurants and other businesses became law, the Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to expand its new ordinance to prohibit smoking at parks and other property owned or leased by the municipality.

The expanded ordinance, which becomes effective Jan. 1, will include parks, playing fields and sports facilities, buildings, parking lots and structures.

The board voted 6-0 in favor the bill. Alderman Cynthia Garnholz was absent.

Jump to full article »

New Wash U Ban Also Outlaws Outdoor Smoking 

Chad posted the news earlier this morning that Clayton has banned smoking outdoors in the municipality's parks and public properties, but he failed to mention that there's at least one other open-air place in St. Louis where lighting up is now off-limits.

That would be Washington University, which passed a comprehensive smoking ban in April 2009. The policy took effect in July, but fall classes start August 31 so the school is just starting to deal with nicotine-addicted undergrads looking for a place to get their fix.

One solution actually includes giving students free access to the patch.

Jump to full article »

EDITORIAL: Clayton Approves Draconian Smoking Ban: No Cigarettes in Parks 

​We here at Daily RFT have (for the most part) championed the many smoking bans voted in last year by various city councils and voters in St. Louis, Kirkwood, St. Louis County and other municipalities.

But the enhanced ban that Clayton's board of aldermen approved last night goes a little too far -- in our humble opinion. The law bans smoking in city parks as well as all city-owned outdoor properties, such as parking lots.

Jump to full article »

• RJR Gets Access To Protected St. Luke's Depositions ($$) 

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has won permission to view protected depositions from a 2008 hospital antitrust case as part of its defense in a state court case brought by Missouri hospitals seeking more than $1 billion to pay for smoking-related health care costs.

Judge Monti L. Belot of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled Wednesday that RJR could have access to the protected depositions provided by representatives of St. Luke's Health System in an antitrust case brought by a Kansas specialty clinic that alleged it was pushed out of business by larger rivals. . . .

St. Luke's is part of the group of Missouri hospitals that sued RJR and several other tobacco companies in 1999 over charges to treat charity care and bad debt patients. The hospital is seeking to recover more than $139.5 million, according to a motion to intervene RJR filed in July.

RJR said in its motion to intervene in the closed antitrust case that the depositions it seeks to recover will help it determine whether actions St. Luke's took in the antitrust case helped keep health care costs artificially high, and thus reduce the amount of money St. Luke's could demand in the state court case.

“Eliminating competition would have the effect of artificially inflating Saint Luke’s charges — and the damages it now seeks from RJR in the state court action,” the motion said.

Jump to full article »

Contextual and subjective antecedents of smoking in a college student sample 

Introduction: College is a time when individuals are at risk for initiating or increasing their smoking behavior. Little is known, however, about the contexts in which college students smoke. Identifying antecedents to smoking would provide insights into motivation and stimulus control of smoking in this population.

Method: In a sample of 50 college student smokers, situational, behavioral, and subjective state variables were compared between prompted interviews (N = 2,095) and participant-initiated smoking interviews (N = 865) using electronic handheld diaries.

Results: The strongest predictors of smoking were recently inhabiting an outside location (odds ratio [OR] = 4.19, p < .001), the presence of others smoking (OR = 3.93, p < .001), and being where smoking was permitted (OR = 3.26, p < .001), indicating situational control over smoking. Less cue control over smoking was found for daily than nondaily smokers. Craving was the most robust subjective antecedent of smoking behavior (OR = 1.32, p < .001).

Discussion: These results suggest that smoking among college students is largely opportunistic, craving is important and may develop early in the progression of smoking, and stimulus control may erode with greater smoking experience.

Jump to full article »

Tobacco ban hits campus  

Thanks to the July 1 tobacco ban, students must now go off campus to smoke.

As of July 1, Washington University is officially smoke-free. The University announced the tobacco ban in April 2009.

The ban’s implementation has proceeded smoothly so far, according to chief of police Don Strom.

“From the WUPD perspective, we have had very few complaints to respond to and we have no new enforcement patrols planned at this time,” Strom said.

Jump to full article »

• E-cigarette fans descend on St. Louis 

They prefer to be called "vapers," but really they're electronic cigarette users.

And on early Friday evening, dozens of them roamed a conference room at the downtown Sheraton Hotel on 14th Street, sucking on cylinders about 4 inches long.

Puffs of steam floated from their mouths and quickly disappeared. The faint scent of apple mingled with menthol and caramel.

Midwest Vapefest had officially begun. Spike Babaian, organizer of the event and founder of the National Vapers Club, estimates that about 200 vapers would take part in the meet-up, which runs through Sunday.

She jumped up several times to hug vapers as they entered the room.

"This is like a reunion, only we've never actually met in person before," Babaian said, alluding to the online community that has evolved in recent months. . . .

Midwest Vapefest offers a chance to check out the wares of vendors and listen to speakers extol the virtues of e-cigarettes over tobacco. Undoubtedly, there'll also be discussions about ways to thwart a growing anti-vaping movement.

Jump to full article »