Suit could help kin of panelists, firms say
Jump to full article: New Orleans (LA) Times Picayune, 2001-09-08
Author: Susan Finch / Staff writer/The Times-Picayune
Intro: The Louisiana Supreme Court will hold a hearing Wednesday on whether the jury in the upcoming trial of a statewide class-action lawsuit against the nation's big tobacco companies should include people whose close relatives are healthy smokers or former smokers.
The question was brought to the high court this week by attorneys for Big Tobacco.
They claim it would be unfair for the case to be decided by individuals whose parents, siblings, spouses or children could qualify for the relief the suit seeks: programs to help them stop smoking and annual testing to detect lung cancer, bladder cancer, heart disease and emphysema.
A six-month-to-yearlong trial of the case before Civil District Judge Richard Ganucheau was to have begun Wednesday but was postponed after three judges of the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal told Ganucheau to replace one juror and one alternate juror it said were biased against the tobacco companies.
Two other 4th Circuit judges who considered the matter agreed those two jurors should be removed but said Ganucheau should replace all 13 jurors and alternate jurors whose immediate relatives could be part of the plaintiffs' class.
The tobacco companies have asked the Supreme Court to require Ganucheau to come up with a completely new set of jurors and alternate jurors.
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