Billy Shields Daily Business Review
Jump to full article: Law.com, 2009-01-21
Intro: About 45,000 sick smokers have been approved for payments from a $580 million fund that sprouted from an overturned tobacco negligence verdict, but questions about federal tax liability and Medicare liens still have not been answered.
About $405 million has been distributed in individual checks of $9,000, but supplemental checks have been held up while lawyers figure out what to do with the claims asserted by the federal government, said court-appointed fund administrator Miles McGrane of McGrane Nosich & Ganz in Coral Gables, Fla.
"We're sort of on hold. We're trying to get some definitive word from them," said McGrane, who believes the checks shouldn't be taxable.
The Daily Business Review obtained confidential memos in October about talks between the Justice Department and attorneys for claimants on the tax and Medicare issues.
Confusion over the status of the fund was mentioned last week in a status report by McGrane to Miami-Dade Circuit Judge David Miller.
"In all fairness to the DOJ, I don't think they've ever come across an animal like the Engle Trust Fund," McGrane said
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