Mealey's Tobacco
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March 29, 2024
Small E-Liquid Makers Urge Court To Find FDA Rules Unfairly ‘Burdensome’
SHERMAN, Tex. — A Texas federal judge accepted as timely a brief filed by a group of small e-liquid makers and a vaping industry association, in which they oppose a cross-motion for summary judgment filed by the Food and Drug Administration and two officials seeking dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims that federal regulation of vaping is so “burdensome” it effectively bars small companies from entering the market.
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March 28, 2024
Split Florida Panel Reverses $43M Verdict To Dead Smoker’s Son Due To Hearsay
MIAMI — A split Florida Third District Court of Appeal panel on March 27 reversed a $43 million compensatory and punitive damages verdict in favor of the estate of a dead smoker after finding that the trial court reversibly erred by permitting the smoker’s sons to proffer hearsay evidence indicating that their mother was harmed by her reliance on a tobacco company’s misleading claims about the benefits of cigarette filters.
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March 26, 2024
High Court Shouldn’t Review 2nd Circuit Affirmance Of Flavored Vape Ban, FDA Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Food and Drug Administration on March 25 filed a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court opposing a flavored vape company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, stating that the court should instead grant certiorari in a petition the FDA filed challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling reversing its bans of e-cigarette products because that case is “the only vehicle for deciding the full range of legal issues raised.”
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March 22, 2024
5th Circuit Reverses Vacatur Of New Graphic Warnings For Tobacco Products
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 21 reversed the vacatur of Food and Drug Administration graphic warnings requirement for tobacco products, writing that the warnings depicting lesser-known health risks of tobacco use “survive constitutional muster against the First Amendment challenge” brought by tobacco companies and remanding the case.
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March 22, 2024
FDA Urges Supreme Court To Find Flavored E-Cig Bans Not ‘Arbitrary’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Food and Drug Administration filed a petition for a writ of certiorari urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that its ban of two vape companies’ flavored e-liquids was “arbitrary and capricious,” arguing that the high court should resolve a circuit split on the issue and side with the majority of circuit courts that have affirmed similar bans.
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March 22, 2024
Tobacco Companies Say Smoker’s Daughter Not Entitled To $2.1M Verdict
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Two tobacco companies in a brief filed to the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal challenge a $2.1 million compensatory damages verdict they were ordered to pay the widower of a dead smoker who died while the appeal was pending, arguing that the estate’s new representative, his daughter, is not the smoker’s statutory survivor and therefore can claim only roughly $7,000 in funeral expenses.
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March 18, 2024
E-Cig MDL Judge Issues Order Granting Final Approval Of $45M Altria Settlement
SAN FRANCISCO — The California federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries issued written final approval of a $45 million settlement to resolve economic loss claims brought by class members who purchased JLI products in reliance upon misleading information about its addictiveness and health risks.
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March 15, 2024
Florida Supreme Court Won’t Reinstate Engle Lawyer Due To Improper Rehabilitation
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court denied a petition for reinstatement to the state bar by an attorney who was suspended in 2022 for filing thousands of Engle progeny lawsuits “without investigating or informing himself as to the facts of each case and for knowingly misrepresenting the viability of the claims.”
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March 13, 2024
En Banc 5th Circuit Panel Won’t Amend Ruling Reversing Flavored E-Cig Ban
NEW ORLEANS — Members of the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority that previously reversed a Food and Drug Administration ban of two vape companies’ flavored e-cigarette products as arbitrary and capricious on March 12 denied the companies’ motion to clarify the opinion’s reference to FDA approval of menthol e-cigarette products, writing that the reference was to a heat-not-burn product.
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March 11, 2024
E-Cig MDL Judge: ‘Millions Of Fraudulent Claims’ Filed In $45M Altria Settlement
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries said at a hearing that he would grant final approval to a $45 million settlement with Altria and is “inclined” to approve a 30% attorney fee award, while also advising plaintiffs’ counsel to contact federal prosecutors regarding “millions of fraudulent claims” that were submitted.
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March 11, 2024
Mass. High Court Upholds Town’s Ban On Tobacco Sales To People Born After 2000
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on March 8 upheld a Brookline, Mass., town bylaw banning sales of tobacco products to people born after 2000, rejecting arguments by local tobacco retailers that the town’s law is arbitrary and preempted by state law.
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March 11, 2024
Judge Won’t Overturn Jury’s $2.3M Verdict In Tobacco Rolling Papers Dispute
ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge denied two defense motions asking the court to deem excessive or reduce a $2.3 million jury verdict against them for trademark infringement against a rolling papers company and order a new trial, finding that the jury properly weighed the evidence and that its verdict was proper.
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March 08, 2024
Smoker’s Estate’s Claims Against Tobacco Company, Retailers Rejected By Jury
SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico state court jury returned a defense verdict on wrongful death claims brought by the estate of a decades-long Marlboro Red smoker who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer before catching COVID-19 and dying in 2020, ruling in favor of cigarette manufacturer R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) and two local retailers. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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March 07, 2024
Smoker’s Widow Can’t Seek Punitives For ‘Same Course Of Conduct,’ Panel Rules
MIAMI — A Florida Third District Court of Appeal panel on March 6 affirmed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment on a smoker’s widow’s claim for punitive damages against a tobacco company, ruling in part that under Florida’s punitive damages statute, the widow’s claim for punitive damages failed because it was for the “same course of conduct” for which the company was previously ordered to pay $198 million in other Engle cases.
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March 07, 2024
Cigarette Warnings Improperly Imposed On ‘HeatSticks,’ Amici Tell D.C. Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Cigarette manufacturers R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) and ITG Brands LLC filed an amicus curiae brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals supporting Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) in its appeal of a district court ruling that its “HeatSticks” tobacco products are bound by a “corrective statements” remedy imposed on PM and other tobacco companies in 2006 for concealing the health risks of cigarettes.
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March 07, 2024
Smoker’s Daughter Properly Allowed To Pursue Punitives, Florida Panel Told
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A dead smoker’s daughter filed an appellee brief urging a Florida appellate panel to affirm a trial judge’s order allowing her to add a claim for punitive damages to her wrongful death complaint against two tobacco companies, while the companies argue that the claim is barred by Florida’s punitive damages statute because they have already been ordered to pay punitive damages for “the same act or single course of conduct.”
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March 06, 2024
Judge Dismisses Smoker’s Widow’s Wrongful Death Suit For Failure To Prosecute
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge granted several tobacco companies’ motions to dismiss a wrongful death suit brought against them by the widow of a dead smoker after finding that the plaintiff failed to appear for, respond to or prosecute her suit after the companies removed the case to federal court.
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March 04, 2024
Consumer Claims Zyn Nicotine Pouches Caused Addiction, Dental Health Issues
SAN DIEGO — In a putative class action product liability complaint filed in California federal court on March 1, a user of “Zyn” flavored nicotine pouches accuses manufacturer Swedish Match North America LLC and parent company Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) of concealing the health risks posed by their product.
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March 04, 2024
Dead Smoker’s Son Deserves New Trial Due To Flawed Jury Selection, Panel Told
MIAMI — A dead smoker’s son argues in an appellant brief filed in Florida appellate court that it should reverse a defense verdict deeming his claims against a tobacco company for causing his mother’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and death time-barred, arguing that the court’s jury selection procedures were improper and that the court wrongly granted summary judgment on his intentional tort claims.
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February 29, 2024
Judgment Entered After Jury Rejects Dead Smoker’s Estate’s Defective Design Claims
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida state court judge entered final judgment rejecting wrongful death claims brought against a tobacco company and a retailer that sold its products by the estate of a smoker who died after being diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. A jury previously rejected the estate’s claims that filtered cigarettes smoked by the decedent were defective. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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February 28, 2024
10th Circuit Affirms FDA Ban Of Vape Products, Deepening Circuit Split
DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 27 affirmed the Food and Drug Administration’s ban of two vape companies’ flavored e-liquid products, siding with several other circuit courts that have found that the FDA properly informed vape companies of its standards for evaluating their products before denying their premarket tobacco application (PMTAs) and ruling that its bans of the petitioners’ products were not arbitrary or capricious.
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February 28, 2024
Tribe Asks Court To Enjoin Federal ‘Death Blow’ To Its Cigarette Sales
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A tribe filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in California federal court seeking to bar the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and other federal law enforcement officials and agencies from deeming it out of compliance with the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, writing that such actions would “strike a death blow” to its business operations as an “on-reservation tribally-owned retailer.”
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February 26, 2024
NJOY Dismisses Suit Against Last Remaining Flavored Vape Seller
LOS ANGELES — E-cigarette maker NJOY LLC, a subsidiary of Altria Group Inc., on Feb. 23 filed a notice of dismissal of its claims against the last remaining flavored disposable vape (FDV) seller accused in its complaint of harming its business by allegedly illegally selling FDVs, a month after a judge dismissed its claims against dozens of other defendants.
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February 22, 2024
Tobacco Defendant’s Failure To Produce Asbestos Evidence Not Willful, Justice Says
NEW YORK — There is no evidence that a tobacco company’s failure to produce reports it no longer has in its possession about testing performed on asbestos-containing Micronite cigarette filters was willful, a New York justice said in denying a motion that sought to compel production or dismiss the company’s answer.
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February 14, 2024
Judge Compels Arbitration Of E-Cig Buyers’ Antitrust Claims Against Juul, Altria
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Feb. 13 granted a motion by e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and two of its corporate officers to compel arbitration of antitrust claims brought against them and tobacco company Altria Group Inc. by two direct purchaser plaintiffs (DPPs) and dismissed the DPPs’ claim for injunctive relief against JLI and Altria.