Supreme Court Won't Consider Reinstating Philip Morris Penalty
By MARK H. ANDERSON
November 27, 2006 10:38 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider reinstating a $10.1 billion tobacco judgment against Philip Morris Inc., a unit of Altria Group Inc.
The Illinois Supreme Court threw out the judgment, issued by a state trial court in 2003, late last year in a class-action lawsuit over light and low-tar cigarettes. The Illinois high court ruled 4-2 that the state-level class-action lawsuit wasn't allowed because Federal Trade Commission consent orders -- settlements between the federal government and tobacco companies -- have allowed tobacco companies to advertise light and low tar cigarette products.
The decision to throw out the Illinois lawsuit was a major win for Philip Morris, the nation's largest tobacco company, amid an ongoing series of legal troubles. A separate federal class-action on light cigarettes is pending in a New York federal court and the company is among several tobacco companies appealing an adverse decision in a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit against the tobacco industry that came out in August.
The plaintiffs in the Illinois class-action lawsuit appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to have the judgment reinstated, arguing that the Illinois court was wrong to use the FTC orders as a rationale for overturning the $10.1 billion ruling. "Well-settled authority establishes that FTC consent orders have no legal effect on non-parties," attorneys for the plaintiffs said in their appeal.
Philip Morris, in its own court filing, said an exemption in Illinois consumer protection laws bars lawsuits prohibited by federal law. The company added it believes the state court properly applied that exemption. "The Illinois legislature and Illinois courts are free to interpret that state-law provision in whatever manner they wish, without regard to federal law," Philip Morris said.
The case is Price v. Philip Morris.
Separately, the justices rejected a challenge from several small tobacco companies that have been fighting a Minnesota tax levy on cigarette companies that didn't participate in the national tobacco settlement.
The Council of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of America and several tobacco companies sued to block the 35 cent per pack of cigarettes tax, citing First Amendment violations. Minnesota state law levies the tax on products sold by companies that didn't participate in the 1998 master tobacco settlement.
The lawsuit, Council of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of America v. Minnesota, was rejected at every stage in the Minnesota state court system.
Also Monday, the high court, in a case resubmitted for appeal after an earlier rejection, without comment turned away State Concern Turkmenneft's appeal of a $445 million arbitration award it was ordered to pay to Bridas Corp., an Argentina energy concern. Turkmenneft, a state-owned Turkmenistan energy entity, has been fighting for a reduction in the award. The two entities have been in a dispute over Turkmenistan oil and gas field development from the mid-1990s.
The case is Turkmenistan v. Bridas SAPIC. |
