Tobacco.org

• Tobacco firms challenge ruling 

The nation's largest tobacco companies tried Wednesday to persuade five state appeals court judges to undo a landmark decision ordering the cigarette makers to pay $591 million for a 10-year effort to help Louisiana smokers kick the habit.

When their turn came to address the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal panel, attorneys for the smokers' class of about 505,000 people argued that the 2004 verdict by a New Orleans jury, and retired Civil District Court Judge Richard Ganucheau's judgment enforcing it, are well-grounded and should stand.

Speaking for his client, Philip Morris USA Inc., and three other tobacco firms, New Orleans attorney Phil Wittman said Ganucheau's judgment should be overturned because he did not let the cigarette makers put on a defense or require proof that class members got addicted to cigarettes after relying on the companies' assurances that the products were safe. . . .

But the tobacco companies are still liable to the class of smokers for damages, he added, because the jury found the firms acted intentionally over more than a half-century to distort the body of public knowledge about the effects of smoking.

"There's your causation," said Herman, adding that tobacco industry representatives told Congress under oath in 1994 that cigarettes aren't addictive and there was no evidence they cause cancer.At the trial, Herman said, the plaintiff class produced testimony and documents showing that thousands of Louisiana smokers have died from lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease. In fact, he said, Louisiana's rate of death from such illnesses is higher than of any other state.

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