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Mealey's Tobacco

May 03, 2022
Magistrate Denies Summary Judgment In Premium Cigar Maker’s Trademark Claim

MIAMI — A Florida federal magistrate judge on April 29 denied motions for summary judgment brought by each side in a trademark dispute between a premium cigar maker and a manufacturer of discount cigarillos on all but one claim, finding that too many issues of fact are in dispute regarding whether consumers are likely to be confused by the similarity in the parties’ marks.
May 02, 2022
Florida Jury Awards $2.5M In Compensatory Damages To Smoker’s Estate

MIAMI — A Florida jury on April 21 awarded $2.5 million in compensatory damages in an Engle wrongful death action against two tobacco companies brought by the estate of a smoker who died in 1993 from lung cancer, despite one tobacco company’s argument at closings that the smoker was not a Florida resident. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
May 02, 2022
Juul MDL Judge Denies Summary Judgment Ahead Of 1st Bellwether Trial

SAN FRANCISCO — The California federal judge overseeing the Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) multidistrict litigation on April 29 denied motions for summary judgment filed by JLI and Altria Group Inc. against a Tennessee minor whose claims for fraud and negligence are set to go before a jury in June in the MDL’s first bellwether personal injury trial.
April 28, 2022
FDA Issues Proposed Rule Banning Menthol Cigarettes And Flavored Cigars

SILVER SPRINGS, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration on April 28 issued two new proposed rules that would prohibit the manufacture, sales or distribution of menthol-flavored cigarettes and flavored cigars, one year after it announced plans to pursue a ban of these products under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA), 21 U.S.C. § 387j et seq.
April 26, 2022
L.A. Says 9th Circuit’s Affirmance Of Flavored Tobacco Ban Didn’t Create Conflict

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles County and its board of supervisors argue in an April 25 response to three tobacco companies’ petition for rehearing en banc that a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel correctly upheld the county’s ban on flavored tobacco product sales as not preempted by federal authority in light of the “unique text and history” of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA).
April 26, 2022
Jury Finds Tobacco Company Didn’t Cause 50-Year Smoker’s Death From Lung Cancer

VERO BEACH, Fla. — A Florida jury on April 22 returned a defense verdict in the third trial brought against a tobacco company by the widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer in 1994 after smoking cigarettes for roughly 50 years, with the jury stating on its verdict form that the company didn’t cause the smoker’s addiction or death. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE
April 25, 2022
Philip Morris’ Statements Properly Deemed Inactionable Puffery, Appellees Say

NEW YORK — A federal district court did not err in dismissing shareholder claims brought in a securities class action against tobacco company Philip Morris International Inc. and certain of its senior executives stemming from alleged misrepresentations the defendants made concerning clinical study results for an e-cigarette product Philip Morris manufactured and the product’s financial performance in Japan because the shareholders failed to sufficiently plead any material misstatement or omission in pleading their federal securities law claims, Philip Morris argues in an April 20 appellee brief filed in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
April 22, 2022
Panel Reverses $3.25M Pre-1999 Punitive Damages Award To Dead Smoker’s Family

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — On remand from the Florida Supreme Court in light of new precedent that Engle wrongful death actions arise on the smoker’s death date, a Florida appellate panel on April 20 reversed a $3.25 million judgment entered under Florida’s pre-1999 punitive damages statute to the children of a smoker who died in 2000 and remanded the case to the trial court.
April 21, 2022
Florida Supreme Court Won’t Review $37M Verdict’s Reversal For Improper Closings

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on April 19 declined to accept jurisdiction over a petition for review of an appellate panel’s reversal of a $37 million judgment in an Engle progeny case against two tobacco companies in which the plaintiffs’ lawyers was found to have made improper and inflammatory closing arguments comparing the companies to Big Brother from George Orwell’s “1984” and Oscar Wilde’s character Dorian Gray.
April 20, 2022
Panel Partly Affirms Vacatur Of $44.4M Verdict, Citing Cigarillo Maker’s Fraud

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 15 reversed in part and affirmed in part a district court’s ruling vacating a jury verdict worth more than $44.4 million, finding that the court erred by granting relief from judgment on a cigarillo maker’s breach of contract and antitrust claims for fraud upon the court but affirmed the court’s order granting relief for new evidence and fraud in general, as the damages awarded were based on fraudulent financial records.
April 19, 2022
Juul Settles Suit With Washington State For $22.5M, Agrees To Reforms

SEATTLE — E-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and the office of Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson on April 12 entered a consent decree in Washington state court under which JLI will pay $22.5 million and implement corporate reforms to resolve claims against the state brought against it for unlicensed sales and deceptive youth marketing.
April 19, 2022
Judge Orders Status Updates From FDA On PMTAs For Top-Selling E-Cigarettes

BALTIMORE — The Maryland federal judge who previously ordered the Food and Drug Administration to advance its premarket tobacco application (PMTA) deadlines for newly deemed tobacco products including e-cigarettes on April 15 ordered the FDA to begin filing status reports on its progress resolving PMTAs for the most popular e-cigarette brands, including Juul Labs Inc.
April 18, 2022
Smoker’s Estate Awarded $1.5M From Tobacco Company For Husband’s Death From COPD

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida jury on April 13 awarded the estate of a smoker who died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) $1.5 million in compensatory damages in an Engle case but did not find that the smoker relied to his detriment on any tobacco company statements. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
April 18, 2022
FDA Invites New PMTAs For Synthetic Nicotine Products

SILVER SPRING, Md. — New legislation granting the Food and Drug Administration regulatory oversight over synthetic nicotine products took effect April 14, and the FDA announced the day before that manufacturers of synthetic nicotine products will have one month to submit premarket applications (PMTAs) to the agency to continue marketing their products in the United States.
April 15, 2022
Panel Reverses $2.5M Attorney Fee Award In Engle Case To Avoid Double Recovery

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court panel on April 13 reversed a trial court’s judgment awarding a deceased smoker’s husband $2.5 million in attorney fees in addition to a previously affirmed $2 million verdict and remanded the case for reconsideration of a reasonable fee “that does not include duplicative amounts.”
April 14, 2022
Florida Supreme Court Leaves Intact $3.2M Engle Attorney Fee Award

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on April 7 declined to accept jurisdiction over a tobacco company’s petition for review of a case in which a split appellate panel affirmed a trial court’s $3.2 million attorney fee award calculated in part based on rates for out-of-state lawyers to an Engle plaintiff who also won an $11 million verdict.
April 14, 2022
Vaping May Alter Function Of Multiple Organ Systems, Study Finds

SAN DIEGO — A group of researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine in a study published April 12 found that daily use of pod-based e-cigarettes such as those manufactured by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) alters inflammatory markers in multiple organ systems, with variations based on flavor, and potentially immune system responses.
April 11, 2022
Jury Awards $4.2M To Family Of Dead Smoker For Concealing Risks

LOWELL, Mass. — A Massachusetts state court jury on March 21 awarded a deceased smoker’s family $4.2 million in compensatory damages on claims for breach of warranty, conspiracy and misrepresentation but declined to award any punitive damages after a Phase II trial. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
April 11, 2022
Panel Vacates Defense Verdict On Smoker’s Son’s Breach Of Warranty Claim

BOSTON — A Massachusetts appellate panel on April 8 vacated a trial court’s entry of judgment in favor of two tobacco companies on deceased smoker’s son’s breach of warranty claim after finding that the trial court gave a prejudicial jury instruction regarding the plaintiff’s argument that safer alternative cigarette designs existed when his father became addicted to nicotine in the 1960s.
April 08, 2022
Ex-Juul Employee’s Race, Age Discrimination Lawsuit Transferred To Home State

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge on March 29 granted the motion of e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) to transfer to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina a former employee’s lawsuit claiming that she was discriminated against on the basis of her age, race and disability and for reporting illegal practices after finding that most relevant incidents and witnesses and the plaintiff’s residence are in North Carolina.
April 06, 2022
Attorney Fee Award, Dismissal In ‘Baseless’ E-Cigarette Patent Dispute Appealed

ATLANTA — A consumer products company on March 22 filed notice in a Georgia federal court that it will appeal to the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for review of the lower court’s Feb. 22 ruling awarding a tobacco company more than $575,000 in attorney fees after the court dismissed the company’s e-cigarette patent infringement claim as “baseless.”
April 06, 2022
2 Engle Cases Sent To Trial Court To Determine New Post-1999 Punitive Awards

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court on March 16 remanded two cases in which it previously affirmed Engle punitive damages awarded under the state’s pre-1999 punitives statute for post-1999 deaths to the trial court for a new determination on damages in light of the Florida Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Sheffield v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
April 05, 2022
Engle Plaintiff Asks Florida Supreme Court To Rehear ‘Fallback Argument’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — An Engle plaintiff in an April 1 motion for rehearing to the Florida Supreme Court doesn’t ask it to reconsider its March 17 ruling that Engle plaintiffs must prove reliance on tobacco company statements to prevail on their fraud claims but instead asks that it address her “fallback argument” that a Florida appellate panel erred by vacating her entire $6.4 million compensatory damages judgment rather than her single fraud claim.
April 04, 2022
Tobacco Companies Ask 9th Circuit To Rehear Challenge To Flavored Tobacco Ban

SAN FRANCISCO — Three tobacco companies in an April 1 petition for rehearing en banc urge the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to address a split panel’s ruling upholding Los Angeles County’s ban on sales of flavored tobacco products, which they claim creates a circuit split, and to find the ban a preempted tobacco product standard under U.S. Supreme Court precedent as the dissenting judge wrote.
April 01, 2022
Judge Approves $90M Settlement In Altria-Juul Securities Class Action

RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on March 31 granted final approval to a $90 million settlement to resolve securities class action claims that tobacco company Altria Group Inc., e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. and the companies’ executives concealed the regulatory and legal risks associated with Juul when Altria invested in it and granted the plaintiffs’ motion for attorney fees.