http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/lawsuit/st. louis hospitals.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/31C3B17191FEFDF1862574C500063A90?OpenDocument http://tobacco.org/news/271189.html It's the oldest lawsuit pending in St. Louis Circuit Court. Missouri hospitals and the nation's largest tobacco companies have sparred for almost 10 years over pretrial details in the billion-dollar case. And if things stay on the current schedule, jury selection for a trial is still 15 months away. The thrust of the case is simple. The hospitals say cigarettes cause illness. They want cigarette makers to reimburse them for caring for smokers who were uninsured or did not pay their bills. The case could set a big precedent. Experts say it already has leaped some legal hurdles that killed more than 160 similar cases in courts across the country. And a victory for the hospitals could open the door for other hospitals or health care agencies across the country to win similar suits. "It certainly has great potential to have an impact on tobacco litigation," said Edward L. Sweda . . . The tobacco companies' defense boils down to distance -- the hospitals were not the ones damaged by cigarettes, the companies say, so they cannot collect money for an individual's health problems. . . . "They knew when they made the cigarette that someone was going to get sick and die, and they knew that someone would have to take care of them," said Kenneth Brostron, a St. Louis lawyer representing the hospitals. "In some cases, that was the hospitals." Both sides have asked Judge Michael P. David to decide the case based on what is already filed, before they go to a jury. If he denies the request, jury selection will start in January 2010. St. Louis Post-Dispatch HRatcliffe@post-dispatch.com (Heather Ratcliffe ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH) Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT