Jump to full article: Bloomberg News, 2001-10-11
Author: William McQuillen
Intro: Philip Morris Cos. and other U.S. tobacco companies asked Louisiana's highest court to throw out the entire jury in a lawsuit by Louisiana smokers who want health checkups.
The Supreme Court of Louisiana last month threw out three jurors and four alternates who the tobacco companies claimed were biased. Another appellate court threw out two others, leaving 12 jurors and one alternate.
The tobacco companies now want to throw out those as well, claiming trial Judge Richard Ganucheau should have excused a number of jurors on his own. The tobacco companies said they had to use all their jury challenges on potential jurors the judge should have dismissed.
``Simply removing biased jurors is insufficient to remedy the harm caused by the district court's numerous errors,'' the companies said in Tuesday's filing. The errors ``made it impossible for defendants to develop and implement a coherent plan for selecting a jury,'' the companies said.
The companies asked state's top court to declare a mistrial and begin jury selection again.
``We believe it is a fundamental issue of unfairness,'' said Seth Moskowitz, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. ``The only way to fully remedy it is to start anew.''
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