Tobacco.org

• Big tobacco wins one in Calif. 

Big tobacco snapped its long Left Coast losing streak Tuesday when a federal judge directed a verdict in favor of R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris in a case brought by the family members of a dead smoker.

On the last day of 2002, Judge Saundra Armstrong of the Northern District of California ruled that plaintiffs had not produced sufficient evidence to support their claims and that a jury could not reasonably return a verdict against the cigarette giants.

As result, Elaine Conley, Weldon White and Dorothy White came up with an empty sack after suing over the 1999 death of 81-year-old Frank White.

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