Jump to full article: Reuters, 2001-05-22
Intro: A U.S. appeals court gave the tobacco industry a pair of victories on Tuesday, dismissing separate lawsuits by foreign governments and by several union health funds alleging fraud and racketeering violations and seeking to recover smoking-related health care-costs.
The unanimous three-judge appellate panel said in a opinion written by Judge Judith Rogers that the claims were ``too remote, contingent, derivative and indirect'' to survive.
The ruling dismissed the lawsuit by the union health funds, which sought to force the tobacco industry to reimburse them for funds spent on the medical treatment of individual smokers.
It said seven other appeals courts have considered similar lawsuits and have rejected them on the grounds that the health funds were not directly injured by the cigarette makers. The appeals court said a federal trial judge had been wrong in allowing the lawsuit to go forward.
In the other case, the appeals court said a trial judge had been correct in ruling that Guatemala's alleged injuries were ``too remote'' to have been caused by the misconduct of the various tobacco companies. The judge later dismissed similar lawsuits by Nicaragua and the Ukraine.
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