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Mealey's Tobacco

October 24, 2024
Florida Panel Limits New Trial In Widower’s Engle Case To Spousal Damages

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal on Oct. 23 issued an order on the scope of a new trial in an Engle case in which a dead smoker’s widower originally won $157 million, writing that the new trial should consider only the widower’s entitlement to compensatory damages under the state’s Wrongful Death Act based on new Florida Supreme Court precedent allowing surviving spouses to pursue noneconomic damages even if they married after the relevant injury manifested.
October 22, 2024
FDA Tells High Court New Graphic Warnings Reflect Will Of Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Food and Drug Administration and its federal codefendants on Oct. 21 filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to deny a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by tobacco companies and retailers who are challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling upholding the Food and Drug Administration’s new graphic warnings requirement on tobacco products, asserting that the warnings are proper under the Tobacco Control Act (TCA).
October 21, 2024
Panel Strikes Down Oregon Vape Packaging Rules On Free Speech Grounds

SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon appellate court held that a state law prohibiting sales of any vape product deemed to be packaged in a manner attractive to minors violates the state constitution’s protection of free speech because it controls the packaging of products sold only to adults and remanded the suit.
October 21, 2024
Judge Grants FDA Request To Terminate Mandatory E-Cig Review Progress Reports

BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge on Oct. 18 entered a docket entry granting the Food and Drug Administration’s motion to remove a two-year-old requirement that FDA provide the court regular status reports on its progress reviewing premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs) for the nation’s top-selling e-cigarette brands, rejecting arguments by health groups and doctors that the reports are still needed.
October 18, 2024
Panel Rejects Tobacco Company’s Statutory Challenge To $8.8M Judgment

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal panel on Oct. 17 affirmed an $8.8 million judgment in favor of a dead smoker’s estate, rejecting a tobacco company’s argument that due to intervening appeals the judgment was rendered no longer final and therefore must be reduced to lost support and services damages of $295,000.
October 18, 2024
At Least 7 Recent ERISA Putative Class Actions Target Tobacco Surcharges

In the past month, at least seven putative class actions targeting surcharges that tobacco or nicotine users allegedly must pay to maintain health insurance have been filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
October 16, 2024
Citing Loper Bright, Amici Urge High Court To Uphold Reversal Of FDA’s E-Cig Bans

WASHINGTON, D.C. — E-cigarette makers, politicians, industry associations and economics groups filed eight amicus curiae briefs on Oct. 15 urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ reversal of Food and Drug Administration bans of certain flavored e-cigarette products as arbitrary and capricious, with several amici arguing that the FDA’s bans conflict with Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
October 15, 2024
Altria Group, United States Both Seek Judgment In $106M Foreign Tax Dispute

RICHMOND, Va. — Tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and the United States filed separate motions seeking entry of judgment in a dispute over whether the U.S. Internal Revenue Service owes Altria a roughly $106 million refund for in income taxes Altria says were “erroneously collected” based on taxation of profits earned by the foreign subsidiaries of a foreign company in which Altria held shares.
October 08, 2024
E-Cig MDL Plaintiffs Seek Authorization To Distribute $201M To 842K Class Members

SAN FRANCISCO — The plaintiffs in a California federal court multidistrict litigation who settled class personal injury and consumer protection claims against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries for approximately $300 million filed a motion asking the court to authorize the distribution of $201 million in settlement funds to satisfy more than 842,000 valid claims.
October 08, 2024
Flavored E-Liquid Makers Urge High Court To Reject FDA Defense Of E-Cig Bans

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two makers of e-cigarette products urge the U.S. Supreme Court in an Oct. 7 response brief to side with the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a circuit split over Food and Drug Administration bans of e-cigarette products and affirm the en banc court’s findings that FDA unfairly changed its requirements for vape product manufacturers and “committed prejudicial error” during the review process.
October 04, 2024
Consumer Says Synthetic Nicotine E-Cig Maker Deceptively Marketed To Youth

NEW YORK — An e-cigarette consumer filed a putative nationwide class action against the manufacturer of Puff Bar e-cigarettes in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, arguing that it unfairly markets its flavored, disposable, synthetic nicotine products to young people and deceptively labels the nicotine content of its products.
October 04, 2024
High Court Grants FDA Petition Challenging Forum In Menthol Vape Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 4 granted the Food and Drug Administration’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s finding of jurisdiction over a challenge to an FDA ban of menthol-flavored e-cigarette products brought by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRV) and affiliated entities, which the FDA described as “blatant forum shopping” not supported by the Tobacco Control Act (TCA).
October 04, 2024
Vape Battery Explosion Victim Urges Panel To Uphold $1.6M Verdict

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A man burned when an e-cigarette device’s battery exploded in his pocket filed an appellee brief urging the North Carolina Court of Appeals to reject arguments for reversal of a jury verdict in his favor worth more than $1.6 million, arguing that the jury heard sufficient evidence to hold a battery distributor liable for his injuries.
October 04, 2024
Juul Founders, Board Members Accused Of Diluting Shares For Personal Profit

WILMINGTON, Del. — Two Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) stockholders in a derivative complaint filed in Delaware Chancery Court accuse JLI’s co-founders, members of its board of directors and their special investment vehicles of breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment for allegedly orchestrating the dilution of the value of JLI shares before giving their investment vehicles 1.2 billion JLI shares at little cost in an alleged “windfall.”
October 03, 2024
Flavored Vape Wholesalers Deny New York’s Nuisance Claims After Removal

NEW YORK — Sellers of flavored disposable vapes and the city of New York filed a joint status report in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York updating the court on their arguments in the city’s suit against them for public nuisance and violation of state and federal tobacco laws, which the defendants say are insufficiently pleaded, deficient due to lack of standing and inapplicable to sales between distributors.
October 03, 2024
Putative Class Plaintiff Drops Defendant From Nicotine Pouch Youth Marketing Suit

HARTFORD, Conn. — A consumer bringing a putative class action suit accusing Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) of violating Florida consumer protection statutes by targeting youth and deceptively advertising Zyn nicotine pouches as a “safer and healthier alternative to smoking” on Oct. 2 filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of co-defendant Swedish Match North America LLC after it moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
September 30, 2024
E-Cig MDL Plaintiffs Seek Fees After Altria Settles Tribal Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — The last remaining claims in a California federal court multidistrict litigation against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries have been settled, according to a Sept. 27 filing by the plaintiffs’ fee committee asking the court to approve fees and costs of roughly $1.2 million in connection with the settlement of Indian tribes’ claims against Altria.
September 27, 2024
Judge: Loper Bright Argument In ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Row Merits Consideration

COLUMBUS, Ohio — After supplemental briefing in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case the U.S. Department of Labor filed over a tobacco surcharge wellness program (TSWP), an Ohio federal judge on Sept. 26 denied dismissal without prejudice, saying the defendants’ argument regarding the impact of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo “warrants full consideration.”
September 26, 2024
Tobacco Companies Urge Dismissal Of Nicotine Pouch Youth Marketing Claims

HARTFORD, Conn. — Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) and Swedish Match North America LLC filed motions in Connecticut federal court urging dismissal of a Zyn nicotine pouch consumer’s putative class action suit accusing them violating Florida consumer protection statutes by targeting youth and deceptively advertising the pouch products as a “safer and healthier alternative to smoking.”
September 10, 2024
Judge Releases Reasons For Rejecting Cigar Maker’s Tobacco Control Act Challenge

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Sept. 9 issued a partly redacted version of his previously sealed opinion explaining his decision to deny a flavored cigar manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment on its claims for vacatur of the entire deeming rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration under the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) and for an order requiring the FDA to resolve the manufacturer’s pending substantial-equivalence report (SER).
September 10, 2024
Tobacco Company Tells Panel Malpractice Settlement Precludes Widow’s Engle Claims

MIAMI — A tobacco company filed an answer brief to the Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal urging it to affirm summary judgment on a smoker’s widow’s wrongful death claim against it for causing her husband’s lung cancer and death, in which it says the court correctly found all claims against it precluded by the dead husband’s settlement of medical malpractice claims against his cancer doctor.
September 09, 2024
8th Circuit Won’t Reconsider State Regulation Of Tribe’s External Tobacco Sales

ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 6 denied a petition for panel or en banc rehearing filed by two subsidiaries of a Winnebago Tribe-owned company, which argued that the Circuit Court erred in its interest-balancing analysis before affirming Nebraska’s right to enforce Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) regulations over its tobacco sales to nonmembers.
September 09, 2024
Judge Dismisses Workers’ Challenge To Casinos’ Indoor Smoking Exception

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey state court judge granted a motion to dismiss a complaint filed by two workers’ groups seeking to block Atlantic City, N.J., casinos from continuing to allow smoking indoors under a casino-specific exemption to a state law banning indoor smoking, finding the plaintiffs failed to plead a state right to safety and did not overcome Atlantic City’s “special constitutional status” which permits certain exemptions from state law.
September 06, 2024
Amici States, Health Groups Urge High Court To Affirm FDA’s Flavored E-Cig Bans

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Public health groups, 16 members of Congress, 19 states and the District of Columbia all urge the U.S. Supreme Court in amicus curiae briefs to rule in favor of the Food and Drug Administration in its challenge to the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ vacatur of FDA bans of certain flavored e-cigarette products, writing that the FDA properly banned the products due to public health concerns over youth vaping.
September 05, 2024
Washington State Panel Upholds Arbitrators’ MSA Payment Allocation Order

SEATTLE — A Washington state appellate panel affirmed a trial court’s ruling upholding an arbitral panel’s 2022 order vacating an alternative procedure for tobacco manufacturers and states to allocate certain payments under a master settlement agreement (MSA), finding that the panel did not exceed its authority in determining that the MSA’s allocation procedures were unambiguous and could not be replaced by arbitrators.