Mealey's Tobacco
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October 10, 2022
Amicus Urges High Court To Hear Cigar Maker’s Challenge Of Appeal ‘Gamesmanship’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A public interest nonprofit urges the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus brief to hear a cigar maker’s petition for certiorari challenging what the nonprofit describes as “procedural gamesmanship,” arguing that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals violated high court precedent by hearing an appeal of the vacatur of a $44 million jury verdict in favor of a rival company after it voluntarily dismissed its own claims.
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October 10, 2022
Split Texas Panel Finds Jurisdiction Over Battery Maker For Vape Explosion
EL PASO, Texas — A split Texas appellate panel reversed a trial court and found jurisdiction over a South Korean battery maker and its U.S. subsidiary for claims brought by a man burned after the batteries in his e-cigarette vape device exploded in his pocket, ruling that the battery companies’ arguments that they did not intend their products to be used in vapes go to the merits and do not preclude jurisdiction.
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October 07, 2022
Small E-Liquid Makers Challenge FDA’s Rule As Unfairly ‘Burdensome’
HOUSTON — A group of small e-liquid makers and a vaping industry association filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration and two officials accusing them of imposing “burdensome” new rules on the companies that will bar them from entering the market.
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October 07, 2022
Judge Remands Smoker’s Suit Against Tobacco Companies, Retailers To Local Court
CHRISTIANSTED, St. Croix — A Virgin Islands federal judge remanded the lawsuit of a smoker with laryngeal cancer against tobacco companies and several local retailers to the Virgin Islands Superior Court, finding that the court cannot determine whether the smoker’s claims are time-barred or whether the defendants waived their statute of limitations defenses without examining the merits.
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October 05, 2022
Vice Chancellor: Cigarette Brands Purchaser Liable Under Florida Settlement
WILMINGTON, Del. — A vice chancellor of the Delaware Chancery Court granted summary judgment in favor of Reynolds American Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (collectively, RJR) and ruled that the “only reasonable” interpretation of its sales agreement with the purchaser of four cigarette brands is that the purchaser is liable for overdue annual state payments to Florida on those brands, currently worth more than $170 million.
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October 04, 2022
Judge Dismisses Securities Complaint Against Chinese Vape Company With Prejudice
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a Chinese vaping company’s motion to dismiss a putative securities class action brought against it by investors who claimed that the company overestimated its financial prospects before its initial public offering (IPO), finding that the plaintiffs failed to show that the company intentionally omitted or misrepresented the Chinese government’s planned regulatory scheme for e-cigarettes.
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October 03, 2022
Dead Smoker’s Son Moves For Attorney Fees After Winning $6M Verdict
TAMPA, Fla. — The son of a smoker who died in 2002 after contracting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has moved for an award of costs and attorney fees after winning a jury verdict of $6 million in compensatory damages against a tobacco company, writing that costs and fees are merited because the company declined his offer before trial to settle all claims in the case for $375,000.
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September 30, 2022
Suit Against Tobacco Companies And Retailers Remanded To Virgin Islands Court
CHRISTIANSTED, St. Croix — A Virgin Islands federal judge remanded a dead smoker’s wrongful death suit against tobacco companies and several local retailers to the Virgin Islands Superior Court after ruling that the district court lacks jurisdiction to resolve whether the claims against the nondiverse defendants are time-barred or if the retailers waived that defense by not answering the complaint by a court-ordered deadline.
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September 28, 2022
Oregon County’s Ban Of Flavored Tobacco Preempted By State Law, Judge Says
HILLSBORO, Ore. — An Oregon state court judge has ruled that a countywide ban on sales of flavored tobacco and nicotine products is preempted by state law, writing that the county lacks authority to refuse to allow sales by tobacco stores with state authorized sales licenses.
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September 28, 2022
Colorado Supreme Court Says State Court Lacks Jurisdiction Over Juul Executives
DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that a trial court lacks jurisdiction to hear consumer protection and public nuisance claims against four California-based executives of e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) brought by the state attorney general as the executives are not alleged to have purposely directed any activities at the state.
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September 28, 2022
Jury Awards Dead Smoker’s Sons $4.5M For Lung Cancer Death
MIAMI — A Florida jury awarded $4.5 million in compensatory damages to the three sons of a dead smoker against two tobacco companies for causing her addiction to cigarettes and death from lung cancer but found the smoker 80% at fault for causing her own death by continuing to smoke while ignoring health warnings. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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September 27, 2022
Judge Dismisses Discount Cigarette Makers’ Suit Against Colorado For Price Hike
DENVER — A Colorado federal judge granted the state of Colorado and several officials’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a discount cigarette smoker and three manufacturers who argued that the state’s recent hike of minimum cigarette prices violated the dormant commerce clause by discriminating against interstate commerce, finding that the state’s price hike applies equally to in-state and out-of-state businesses.
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September 26, 2022
Jury Awards Dead Smoker’s Estate $1.3M Against Tobacco Company
MIAMI — A Florida jury awarded $1.3 million in compensatory damages to the estate of a man who was a longtime chain smoker and died from coronary artery disease after smoking for more than 40 years but found the smoker 65% at fault for causing his own illness and death,
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September 23, 2022
Juul Files FOIA Suit Against FDA For Docs Used To Ban Its E-Cigs
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) sued the Food and Drug Administration in a District of Columbia federal court seeking to obtain scientific reviews the FDA relied on in deciding to deny Juul’s premarket tobacco application (PMTA) and ban its products from the market, bringing a single claim for violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
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September 21, 2022
Split 5th Circuit Panel Won’t Rehear Vape Companies’ Challenge To FDA Ban
NEW ORLEANS — An equally divided two-member Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 20 denied two flavored vape companies’ petitions for panel rehearing of their petition for review of the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions to ban the companies’ products, while their petition for en banc rehearing remains pending.
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September 19, 2022
Jury Orders Tobacco Company To Pay Dead Smoker’s Family $1B In Punitive Damages
LOWELL, Mass. — A Massachusetts state court jury on Sept. 19 awarded $1 billion in punitive damages plus approximately $8 million in compensatory damages to the family of a woman who died in 2017 from lung cancer caused by smoking after finding that a tobacco company’s conduct caused her death. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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September 19, 2022
Dead Smoker’s Son Tells Jury Tobacco Companies Could Have Made Safer Cigarettes
MIAMI — During opening arguments on Sept. 12, the son of a dead smoker who had her first cigarette by age 9 told a Florida jury that two tobacco companies are liable for damages for designing their cigarettes to be as addictive as possible when they could have sold a safer alternative design, while the companies said that the smoker knew the risks and that their attempts at safer products fell flat with smokers. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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September 15, 2022
2 Native American Companies Will Pay New York $56M In Tobacco Taxes
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on Sept. 13 entered a stipulated judgment resolving a dispute over sale of untaxed cigarettes in New York state between New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Canadian First Peoples cigarette manufacturer and its New York-based distributor, with the two companies agreeing to pay the state more than $56 million.
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September 08, 2022
Judge Rejects $117M Settlement Of Altria Shareholders’ Claims
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on Aug. 25 denied a motion filed by shareholders in tobacco company Altria Group Inc. to settle derivative claims that certain officers and directors of Altria e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. breached their fiduciary duty by orchestrating a $12.8 billion investment into Juul, with the judge calling the settlement “inadequate” in a minute entry.
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September 12, 2022
9th Circuit Asks Hawaii Supreme Court To Address Jurisdiction In Vape Burn Case
HONOLULU — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 7 declined to resolve the appeal of a man who sued a South Korea-based battery maker for the explosion of his e-cigarette device while he was vaping, which caused severe mouth burns, citing a lack of “clear controlling precedent,” and certified two jurisdictional questions to the Hawaii Supreme Court regarding the applicability of the state’s long-arm statute.
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September 12, 2022
7th Circuit Denies Flavored Vape Company’s Challenge To FDA Ban
CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 29 sided with the Food and Drug Administration and upheld its marketing denial order (MDO) banning a flavored vape company’s product from the market in the United States, rejecting its arguments that the FDA changed its standards during the review process or unfairly presumed that the company’s flavored e-liquids would be attractive to youth.
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September 08, 2022
Jury Awards Altria More Than $95M For Infringed E-Cigarette Patents
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A jury in North Carolina federal court on Sept. 7 issued a verdict awarding more than $95 million to Altria Client Services LLC after finding that it established by the preponderance of the evidence that R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR) infringed three of its patents for pod-based vape technology.
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September 08, 2022
5th Circuit Gives FDA More Time To Answer Banned Vape Companies’ Bid For Rehearing
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a Sept. 7 docket entry gave the Food and Drug Administration until Sept. 30 to respond to petitions for panel and en banc rehearing filed by two flavored vape companies who argue that their products were wrongly banned, citing an emerging circuit split over the FDA’s decisions to ban certain companies’ e-cigarette products.
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September 07, 2022
Juul Reaches $439 Million Settlement With 34 States, Territories, Texas AG Says
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Sept. 6 announced that Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) has agreed in principle to pay at least $438.5 million over six to 10 years and to adhere to new corporate policies to resolve a two-year investigation by multiple states into JLI marketing, labeling and sales policies that unlawfully preyed on youth customers.
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September 01, 2022
11th Circuit Orders 2nd Shot At PMTAs For 6 Flavored Vape Companies
MIAMI — A split 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 23 set aside the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial orders (MDOs) to six flavored vape companies after finding that it arbitrarily and capriciously denied their premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs) without considering plans to limit youth access to their products, while a dissenting judge predicted that on remand the companies will again receive MDOs.