''It's a non-issue..., " Sanford Bernstein.
Thu, 25 Mar 1999, 6:12am EST
Tobacco Firms' $349 Mln Florida Settlement Upheld (Update1)
Tobacco Firms' $349 Mln Florida Settlement Upheld (Update1)
(Adds analyst comment in third paragraph, detail in fourth
and fifth paragraphs. Updates share price.)
Miami, March 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. tobacco industry's
$349 million settlement with a class of non-smoking flight
attendants who claimed secondhand smoke made them ill was upheld
by a Florida appeals court.
The 1997 settlement involving Philip Morris Cos., RJR
Nabisco Holdings Corp., B.A.T. Industries Plc's Brown &
Williamson and Loews Corp.'s Lorillard unit was upheld after the
Florida Third District Court of Appeal rejected challenges
brought by flight attendants unhappy with the deal.
''Everybody knew it would be approved,'' said analyst Gary
Black of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Inc. in New York. ''It's a
non-issue as far as investors are concerned because it was
something that was expected.''
New York-based Philip Morris and the other cigarette makers
reached the settlement after six years of litigation with
thousands of flight attendants, who claimed they were exposed to
secondhand smoke in airliner cabins. Among other things, the
settlement established a $300 million medical foundation fund to
sponsor scientific research on smoking-related diseases.
The dissenting flight attendants' primary concern was that
the medical fund provides no specific benefit to flight
attendants. The appellate court disagreed, though, saying ''the
benefits of this settlement are abundant.''
Shares of New York-based Philip Morris, the world's No. 1
cigarette maker, rose 5/16 to close at 40 13/16 Wednesday.
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