Judge Allows Class Action Tobacco Suit
By TOM HAYS
NEW YORK – A federal judge on Monday granted class action status to tens of millions of "light cigarette" smokers for a potential $200 billion lawsuit against tobacco companies.
U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein in Brooklyn made the ruling on a 2004 lawsuit that alleges Philip Morris USA Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and other defendants duped smokers, and responded to consumers’ mounting health concerns with a campaign of deception designed to preserve revenue.
The class is anyone who purchased cigarettes that were labeled "light" or "lights" after they were put on the market, beginning in the early 1970s.
In arguing last week for the class certification, plaintiff attorney Michael D. Hausfeld said the manufacturers hoped to "move markets" with a cynical marketing strategy promoting light cigarettes as a lower-risk alternative to regular cigarettes, even though their own internal documents showed they knew the risks were about the same.
"They understood that they were selling death," he said. The question, he added, was "how to disguise it. … They put on ‘lights.’"
Hausfeld told the judge that an analysis by plaintiffs’ expert witnesses concluded more than 90 percent of the smokers in the potential class purchased light cigarettes over the past three decades based on health concerns, as opposed to taste or other factors. A separate study found that smokers, had they known the truth about the health risks, would have expected discounts of 50 to 80 percent per pack, part of the basis for a demand for between $120 billion and $200 billion in damages, he said.
The lawyer noted that because the suit was filed under civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, those damages could be automatically tripled, up to a staggering $600 billion.
Defense attorneys argued that the lawsuit relied on flawed data. Without surveying each smoker in the suit, it would be impossible to determine their motives for buying light cigarettes, they said.