http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/lawsuits.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=15581 http://tobacco.org/news/268329.html Bar patrons are talking over tall mugs of beer, nothing unusual about that. But there are ashtrays – ashtrays! – on the tables. And a slight smoky haze hangs in the air, as people happily puff away on cigarettes and cigars. Three years after voters overwhelmingly approved Washington's toughest-in-the-nation smoking ban, a handful of bar owners, clubs and others continue to seek ways around it. Among their recent efforts: •An American Legion post in Bremerton has a case before the state Supreme Court, arguing that the ban was never intended to apply to private clubs. •Frankie's owner Frank Schnarrs has been in court for two years, arguing that his upstairs bar is actually a members-only club, and that the servers are volunteers. •Cigar fans gathered tens of thousands of signatures this year in an unsuccessful effort to restore smoking in cigar stores and smoke shops. The Spokesman-Review sr.com@spokesman.com (Rich Roesler Staff writer July 6, 2008 ) Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Layout/Includes/ET/Artwin.asp?From=Archive&Skin=MM&BaseHref=MMIR/2008/07/04&EntityId=Ar00801&ViewMode=HTML&AppName=1 http://tobacco.org/news/268308.html It is finally official. City restaurants, cafes, and eateries will now longer be allowed to serve hookah’s at their premises. As per a ruling by the Bombay High Court on Thursday that upheld Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s decision to close down such parlours in the city, the court observed, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but when tobacco smells like an apple it can be injurious to health.” The division bench of justice S B Mhase and jusitce Ashutosh Kumbhkoni made the observation after the BMC counsel opened an apple-flavoured tobacco container. The BMC will now be allowed to close down all hookah parlours across the city. The Times of India India Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.clintonherald.com/local/local_story_185203135.html http://tobacco.org/news/268304.html The Clinton Organized Bar and Restaurant Association and the Iowa Bar Owners Coalition have filed a lawsuit in an effort to get the statewide smoking ban overturned. The lawsuit includes a petition for an immediate injunction, asking the court to put a halt on the smoking ban until a ruling can be made on the law's constitutionality. "It's been our belief from the get-go that this law is unconstitutional," said Jon Van Roekel, president of COBRA. "It's blatant discrimination against smokers and it's a property rights issue." The petition was filed Tuesday evening in Polk County District Court in Des Moines. . . . Van Roekel said COBRA and IBOC leaders are in the process of hiring a public relations firm out of Washington, D.C., to coordinate the release of information relating to court proceedings. He said the firm also will be responsible for contacting organizations to join in the lawsuit and injunction request as they too will be affected by the court's decision. . . . "From the start, it's just been a complete debacle. They needed to be clear, explain what the rules are, how to enforce them, how to handle complaints, who to contact. First, the Iowa Department of Public Health was to enforce this. Then the local police, then it was self-enforcement. Clinton Herald Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/NEWS/806290371/1001/news http://tobacco.org/news/268265.html Hollywood director Michael Mann, in his letter to U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers, said Scruggs "is simply not a boastful man." Mann directed the 1999 movie, The Insider, about the secrets of the tobacco industry that led to the record $206 billion nationwide settlements Scruggs helped negotiate. Scruggs was a consultant. "Dick never talked himself up to be more than a hero than was accurate," Mann wrote. . . . So how did Scruggs, who made up to $800 million in legal fees on tobacco litigation, get involved in a scheme to pay a seemingly paltry $40,000 bribe to a judge? Scruggs' friends say they're baffled. Scruggs' attorney, John Keker of San Francisco, suggested it might take an author along the lines of a William Faulkner or Walker Percy to explain it all. . . . Like Jones, two former law partners, Alwyn Luckey and Bob Wilson, sued Scruggs, in 1994, saying he never paid them their share from asbestos and tobacco litigation. Convinced Scruggs was being "shaken down" by others, Jones said he poured all his might into defending Scruggs. The case bounced from court to court until both sides agreed to let U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerry Davis arbitrate the case involving Luckey in 2005. Davis ordered Scruggs to pay Luckey $17 million. "The irony is the bulk of the majority of the award was interest because Dickie had litigated it for 12 years," Jones said. Jones viewed the ruling as a victory since he had successfully protected Scruggs' interests with regard to any legal fees earned from the tobacco litigation. But Scruggs saw it as an unacceptable defeat, Jones said. From that point on, Scruggs decided to stop trusting the system that had made him a multimillionaire, Jones said. "I was dealing with a different man emotionally and psychologically." Jackson Clarion-Ledger jmitchell@clarionledger.com Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-15/121515617164600.xml&coll=1 http://tobacco.org/news/268259.html LUDLOW - Selectmen will seek a legal opinion on whether they can present an article to a Town Meeting asking residents to ban smoking in private clubs. Smoking is now banned in bars and restaurants. Selectmen Chairman Antonio E. Dos Santos said this week that banning smoking in private clubs would "level the playing field" for bars, restaurants, and clubs. Springfield Union-News and Sunday Republican smclaughlin@repub.com (SUZANNE McLAUGHLIN) Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/07/03/news/politics/10448378.txt http://tobacco.org/news/268205.html Bar and restaurant owners upset with the statewide smoking ban that went into effect Tuesday are taking legal action in an attempt to overturn the law. A group led by the Iowa Bar Owners Coalition, a nonprofit organization based in Clinton County, filed a petition in Polk County District Court in Des Moines on Tuesday. The petition asks the court to put a halt on the ban until it can rule on the law's constitutionality, according to court documents. The petition argues that Iowa lawmakers overstepped their constitutional authority when they approved the ban. The plaintiffs claim the ban violates their right to "pursue useful and lawful businesses without oppressive regulations," according to the petition. Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier nancy.newhoff@wcfcourier.com ( FRED LOVE, Courier Des Moines Bureau ) Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/07/03/news/iowa/f8aaf3111435080d8625747b000f3ca6.txt http://tobacco.org/news/268188.html Bar and restaurant owners upset with the statewide smoking ban that went into effect Tuesday are taking legal action in an attempt to overturn the law. A group led by the Iowa Bar Owners Coalition, a non-profit organization based in Clinton County, filed a petition in Polk County District Court in Des Moines Tuesday. The petition asks the court to halt the ban until it can rule on the law's constitutionality, according to court documents. The petition argues that Iowa lawmakers overstepped their constitutional authority when they approved the ban. The plaintiffs claim the ban violates their right to "pursue useful and lawful businesses without oppressive regulations," according to the petition. Sioux City Journal fred.love@lee.net (Fred Love Journal Des Moines Bureau) Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=D91HUHO06 http://tobacco.org/news/268139.html The case, along with a separate tobacco lawsuit against Altria Group Inc., centers on whether federal regulation of products overrides state laws, including those that govern when a person or company can be held liable for another's injury. The court's ruling in the Wyeth case "potentially could apply to all lawsuits against all manufacturers of prescription drugs," said Mark Herrmann, an attorney at Jones Day in Chicago who represents drug and medical device companies. "It's the 800-pound gorilla." That's because the vast majority of lawsuits against drugmakers involve the same issue: whether the company provided sufficient notice of potential hazards in the product's label. Pharmaceutical labels are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. If the court issues a broad ruling in favor of Wyeth, other industries likely will follow suit AP help@canadianbusiness.com (Christopher S. Rugaber) Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080703/NEWS/807030385 http://tobacco.org/news/268133.html On the same day a new statewide smoking ban went into effect, several bar and restaurant owners filed a petition in Polk County District Court seeking to overturn the ban. The Iowa Bar Owners Coalition, based in Clinton County; the Clinton Organized Bar and Restaurant Association; Froehlich Properties; and longtime smoker Ron Oveson filed the petition in Des Moines on Tuesday. Des Moines Register vkshaw@dmreg.com (VANNAH SHAW) Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/regional-special/Batu_loses_Shs4_billion_case_to_tobacco_growers_67560.shtml http://tobacco.org/news/268045.html Over 3,000 tobacco farmers from mid western Uganda have won a landmark case in which they demanded over Shs3.8 billion from BAT Uganda Limited (Batu) as compensation for tobacco grown in 2004 which the latter refused to buy. Commercial Court Judge, Egonda Ntende in his judgment delivered last week, agreed with the arguments of the farmers that Batu was liable to compensate the complainants for the tobacco they grew on contract. “I am satisfied that the farmers grew the tobacco in accordance with their contract and the law and delivered the same to Batu,” Justice Ntende’s judgement reads in part. “But the tobacco company, for reasons that have not been explained in this case, declined to complete the process Monitor Uganda Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.lawyersusaonline.com/index.cfm/archive/view/id/431181 http://tobacco.org/news/267866.html The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to drastically slash a punitive damages award against Exxon over the 1989 Valdez oil spill from $2.5 billion to $500 million has lawyers debating whether the ruling will have an impact on punitive damage awards beyond maritime cases. . . . The Court held in a 5-3 decision that an appropriate punitive damages award should not exceed an amount equal to the compensatory damages in the case, which totaled $507.5 million. However, the Court relied heavily on an analysis of punitive damages generally. Some attorneys say the case has widespread implications. Lawyers Weekly USA sylvia.hsieh@lawyersusaonline.com (Sylvia Hsieh Staff writer) Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/smokers_tobacco_firms_to_meet.html http://tobacco.org/news/267857.html Attorneys for Louisiana smokers and the nation's biggest tobacco companies will square off in a hearing today on a case that made headlines in 2004 when a Civil District Court jury ruled that the firms should pay $519 million to help Louisianians kick the smoking habit for conspiring to mislead the public about tobacco's effects. Retired Civil District Judge Richard Ganucheau, who presided over the trial that led to the jury's verdict, scheduled the hearing to help him decide where the two sides in the case stand in light of a state appeals court's move last fall to slash the jury award to $279 million. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeal ruling, which the state and U.S. Supreme Courts have let stand, also limited participation in the smoking cessation programs the jury ordered to people whose claims for such assistance accrued before Sept. 1, 1988, the effective date of the Louisiana products liability act. New Orleans Times Picayune Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=275362&pub=1&div=News http://tobacco.org/news/267720.html If you ever see the movie, "The Insider," you'll see the story of Dr. Jeffrey Wigand and his great difficulties in blowing the whistle on the world's second-largest tobacco company about the health hazards of smoking. The man who legally helped Wigand get his message to the world: Richard "Dickie" Scruggs. The man who risked his job to make the documentary for CBS/60 Minutes: Lowell Bergman. Wigand and Bergman are among 248 letters to Senior Judge Neal Biggers asking for leniency when Scruggs stands before him Friday to be sentenced for pleading guilty to trying to bribe a judge. Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal DJWebmaster@djournal.com (Patsy R. Brumfield Daily Journal ) Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080625/NEWS02/806250433/-1/NEWS http://tobacco.org/news/267633.html A Franklin County judge yesterday slightly loosened the noose he's tied around Ohio's tobacco prevention funds, allowing $10 million to be siphoned off to continue some smoking cessation programs while a legal fight over the money continues. The agreement was struck between the Ohio Department of Health and the American Legacy Foundation. The Washington-based foundation has sued the state to claim $190 million that the state's anti-smoking foundation promised it just before Gov. Ted Strickland and lawmakers put it out of business in April. Toledo Blade Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://americanlegacy.org/2445.aspx http://tobacco.org/news/267594.html Judge David Fais of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas today signed an order allowing $10 million of the frozen funds previously earmarked for tobacco prevention and cessation services in the state to continue being spent throughout 2008 and 2009. This order comes as a result of a joint motion filed by the American Legacy Foundation and the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) as well as the other state defendants, asking that the funds be freed up to maintain basic tobacco control programs in Ohio. Four million dollars would be spent to satisfy obligations incurred through June 30 and $6 million would be spent for tobacco control in the fiscal year beginning on July 1. "ODH's decision to seek permission to spend these funds is a step in the right direction, as the agency recognizes the critical need for continued funding of these life-saving services," said Dr. Cheryl Healton, president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation. "If we prevail in our legal claims, we will assure that far more funds are spent on life-saving tobacco control programs in Ohio." American Legacy Foundation kcollins@golinharris.com Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT