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• Philip Morris, Others Win Dismissal of Tobacco Suits (Update3) 

A federal appeals court threw out racketeering claims by labor unions against Philip Morris Cos. and other U.S. cigarette makers, and dismissed a separate case against the industry by three foreign nations.

Tobacco analysts said the ruling may cast doubt on a U.S. Justice Department suit that seeks hundreds of billions of dollars in damages.

``We consider the news extremely positive and a significant legal victory for the tobacco industry,'' said David Adelman, a tobacco analyst with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

Some experts disagreed, arguing that today's ruling has no bearing on the merits of the racketeering charges made by the government.

The issue in today's ruling ``is completely unrelated to the government's case,'' said William Schultz, a former Justice Department official who supervised the U.S. case. ``The government is not seeking recovery of health-care costs'' in its racketeering allegations as were the unions, he said.

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