Mealey's Tobacco
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February 14, 2024
Flavored Vape Company Urges High Court To Review Circuit Split Over FDA Bans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A flavored e-liquid maker filed a petition for a writ of certiorari urging the U.S. Supreme Court to address a circuit split over whether the Food and Drug Administration acted arbitrarily in banning e-cigarette products from the market based on a “previously unannounced requirement” for evaluating manufacturers’ premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs).
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February 12, 2024
Time Limits On Widow’s Trial Against Tobacco Company Affirmed By Mass. High Court
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a trial court did not abuse its discretion by imposing a 56-hour time limit on a smoker’s widow’s wrongful death trial against two tobacco companies and a local retailer and did not prevent the plaintiff from fully presenting her case to the jury.
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February 12, 2024
New Mexico Jury Rejects Claims Against Tobacco Company For Smoker’s Cancer Death
LOS LUNA, N.M. — A New Mexico state court jury returned a defense verdict in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a dead smoker against Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) and a local retailer, rejecting claims that the defendants were liable for the decedent’s addiction to Marlboro- and Marlboro Light-brand cigarettes and her eventual death from lung cancer.
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February 09, 2024
Panel Issues Mixed Ruling In Appeal Of Post-Grant Review Of Vape Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 9 said that although an obviousness challenge by Philip Morris Products S.A. to patented vaping technology was correctly decided in favor of the tobacco giant, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board wrongly found inadequate written descriptive support for two other claims.
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February 06, 2024
Split 5th Circuit Denies FDA’s Forum Shopping Argument In Vuse E-Cigs Ban Row
NEW ORLEANS — A split Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied the Food and Drug Administration’s motion to dismiss or transfer consolidated petitions by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRV) and several retailers challenging the FDA’s bans of several RJRV flavored Vuse e-cigarette products, rejecting FDA’s arguments that the petitioners lack standing or are engaged in forum shopping.
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February 01, 2024
Panel Affirms No Cancer Finding In Engle Case Brought By Smoker’s Widow
MIAMI — A Third District Florida Court of Appeal panel on Jan. 31 affirmed a trial court’s entry of judgment and denial of a dead smoker’s widow’s motion for a new trial after a jury found that her husband did not have lung cancer, thereby dismissing all of her claims against two tobacco companies.
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February 01, 2024
Panel Affirms $2.5M Compensatory Damages Award To Smoker’s Estate In Engle Case
MIAMI — A Florida appellate panel on Jan. 31 affirmed a $2.5 million compensatory damages verdict issued against two tobacco companies in favor of the estate of a smoker who died in 1993 from lung cancer, rejecting arguments that an expert witness’s comment that smoking may have caused the smoker’s ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage were improper or inflammatory.
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January 31, 2024
Mandate Issued, Panel Won’t Rehear Reversal Of Smoker’s Widow’s $2M Punitive Award
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal on Jan. 30 issued a mandate after denying a motion for rehearing of its ruling reversing a $2 million punitive damages award in favor of a dead smoker’s widow on her Engle claims against a tobacco company.
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January 31, 2024
Bidi Challenges New FDA Ban Of Tobacco-Flavored Disposable E-Cigarettes
ATLANTA — Bidi Vapor LLC filed a petition to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial order (MDO) banning sales of its tobacco flavored Bidi sticks products, which it received more than a year after it won a set-aside and remand of the FDA’s ban of its flavored e-cigarette products before the same court.
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January 26, 2024
Tribal Corporation Is Immune In Cigarette Sales Dispute, Calif. Federal Judge Finds
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A tribal corporation is entitled to sovereign immunity from claims brought against it by California for the corporation’s allegedly illegal sales and distribution of cigarettes because the corporation acts on behalf of Alturas Indian Rancheria to the extent that it is an “arm of the tribe,” a California federal judge found in partly granting the corporation’s motion to dismiss.
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January 25, 2024
High Court Urged To Review Circuit Split Over ‘De Facto’ Ban Of Flavored Vapes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A flavored vape company argues in a petition for a writ of certiorari that the U.S. Supreme Court must address a circuit split over the e-cigarette regulatory scheme implemented by the Food and Drug Administration, which it says implemented a de facto ban of flavored e-cigarette products without notifying applicants and “violated” high court precedent regarding “fair warning” to regulated companies.
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January 24, 2024
Judge Remands Baltimore’s Cigarette Filters Lawsuit Against Tobacco Companies
BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge granted the mayor and City Council of Baltimore’s motion to remand their public nuisance suit against six tobacco companies for contributing to litter by selling cigarettes with non-biodegradable filters, finding that the state law claims attacking cigarette filters do not implicate federal legal questions and are not preempted by federal law.
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January 22, 2024
High Court Won’t Review Owner’s Individual Liability In Tobacco Trademark Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 22 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a wholesale company and its owner seeking review of whether the owner may be held individually liable under the Lanham Act for an $11 million trademark infringement judgment despite his argument that he did not knowingly commit an act of infringement, which they claimed is the subject of a circuit split.
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January 19, 2024
Tobacco Company Says $6M Verdict For Dead Smoker’s Children Based On ‘Forgery’
MIAMI — A tobacco company tells a Florida appellate court in a Jan. 18 opening brief that a $6 million verdict against it should be reversed because the jury found that a smoker who died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was an Engle class member based on medical evidence that the treating physician called “a forgery.”
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January 18, 2024
E-Cigarette MDL Plaintiffs Seek Final Approval Of $45M Settlement With Altria
SAN FRANCISCO — The plaintiffs in multidistrict litigation in California federal court against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries filed motions for final approval of a $45 million settlement with Altria and a roughly $13.7 million attorney fee award to resolve the economic loss claims of JLI e-cigarette purchasers.
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January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
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January 12, 2024
Dead Smoker’s Representative Says $8.8M Judgment Still Final Despite Amendment
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The representative of a dead smoker’s estate filed an appellee brief urging a Florida appellate panel to reject a tobacco company’s argument that an $8.8 million compensatory damages award in her favor must be reduced to $295,000, arguing that the underlying judgment in her favor is still final despite amendments made after the death of the smoker’s statutory survivor.
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January 12, 2024
2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Securities Fraud Claims Against Philip Morris
NEW YORK — Addressing two matters of first impression, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s dismissal of securities fraud claims brought by shareholders against tobacco company Philip Morris International Inc. and several of its executives based on its statements regarding its studies of heat-not-burn tobacco products, rejecting shareholder claims that PM made material misrepresentations about the products.
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January 08, 2024
High Court Won’t Review California’s Statewide Ban Of Flavored Tobacco Products
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 8 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by tobacco companies and a retailers’ association challenging California’s voter-back ban of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol, which they had argued was preempted by federal regulations under past high court precedent.
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January 08, 2024
Smoker’s Widow Tells Panel Hard Drug Evidence Properly Excluded From Trial
MIAMI — A dead smoker’s widow in a Jan. 5 appellee brief urges a Florida appellate panel to reject a tobacco company’s argument challenging a $5 million Engle verdict in her favor on the basis that the trial court excluded evidence of the smoker’s use of crack and heroin, arguing that the evidence at issue is unreliable and relates only to alleged late-life use after the smoker’s lung cancer diagnosis.
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January 04, 2024
En Banc 5th Circuit Remands FDA Vape Ban Orders, Cites ‘Regulatory Switcheroos’
NEW ORLEANS — The en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 3 ruled by majority that the Food and Drug Administration acted arbitrarily and capriciously by banning two vape companies’ products from the market, writing that the FDA “sent manufacturers of flavored e-cigarette products on a wild goose chase” with its instructions for seeking regulatory approval and rejecting its argument that any error was harmless.
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January 02, 2024
Oregon Appeals Court Stays Portland Flavored Tobacco Ban Challenged By Businesses
SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Court of Appeals stayed a countywide ban of flavored tobacco sales that was due to take effect Jan. 1 but is being challenged on appeal by an Oregon tobacco and e-cigarette industry association, an e-cigarette store and its owner, who claim that the ban will destroy local tobacco businesses.
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December 20, 2023
Amendments To Rule 702 For Expert Witness Testimony Go Into Effect
Amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702, Fed. R. Evid. 702, went into effect to clarify how courts should decide the admissibility of expert testimony.
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December 19, 2023
Smoker With Lung Cancer Says Claims Wrongly Dismissed For Lack Of ‘Defect’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A smoker with lung cancer on Dec. 18 filed an appellant brief in the First District Florida Court of Appeal seeking reversal of a trial court’s dismissal of her complaint without leave to amend, arguing that the court improperly disregarded Florida precedent in finding that she failed to allege that the cigarettes she smoked were defective based on tobacco companies’ manipulation of their nicotine levels.
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December 19, 2023
Juul MDL Judge Approves $76.5M Attorney Fees Award
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Dec. 18 approved an attorney fees award worth more than $76.5 million to be paid out of a $255 million class settlement resolving multidistrict litigation claims against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and approved an attorney fees committee’s recommendation for allocation of common benefit fees to 62 plaintiffs’ firms that participated in the suit.