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• Altria, Cigarette Makers Win Ruling on Florida Smoker Lawsuits  

Altria Group Inc., the biggest U.S. cigarette maker, and other U.S. tobacco companies won a court ruling that might help them defend thousands of individual lawsuits in Florida.

U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger in Jacksonville, Florida, ruled Aug. 28 that smokers suing the companies can't use factual findings from a state class-action, or group, suit to prove their cases.

``Doing so would comprise an arbitrary deprivation of the defendants' federal due process rights guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment,'' Schlesinger wrote.

The ruling threatens to erase much of the advantage that Florida plaintiffs received from the state's highest court in the ``Engle'' tobacco class action in 2006. The ruling, if upheld on appeal, would apply to 4,000 cases filed in the Jacksonville court and federal cases throughout the state. . . .

Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services Inc. senior vice president and associate general counsel, said yesterday in a statement that three judges, including Schlesinger, have ruled that ``plaintiffs in these cases must prove each and every element of their claims.'' . . .

In his ruling, Schlesinger said that Florida law and the U.S. Constitution require smokers to prove all the elements of their claims. He urged them to appeal to the federal appeals court in Atlanta to provide guidance to trial courts.

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