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Non-Tech : Philip Morris - A Stock For Wealth Or Poverty (MO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_biscuit who wrote (6329)	5/8/2002 9:24:14 AM
From: md1derful	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6439

Hi guys....I bought at 19when crammit said the company may be going bankrupt!!! However here's a problem on the horizon ...a nice trade around this may be some leap puts, or puts out to the fall: Mark McMinimy – Tobacco: Legal Expert Foresees Adverse Decision for Tobacco in California • There is a high likelihood that the California Supreme Court will deliver an adverse decision for cigarette makers this summer, one that will allow most sick smokers’ claims to proceed in the state’s courts. This is one of three pending legal decisions that we have identified as having the potential to deliver a negative surprise for investors. Wednesday, May 8, 2002 Page 2 of 2 • University of the Pacific law professor John Sims, who attended the Supreme Court hearing yesterday, indicated that the session and the justices’ questioning strengthened his conviction that the Court is unlikely to bar all claims from plaintiffs who began smoking prior to 1998 as cigarette manufacturers are requesting. • Sims believes the chances are high that Court will allow the most significant group of potential plaintiffs to take their claims to court, i.e. those whose injuries have become manifest since Jan. 1, 1998 as well as those who began smoking before 1998 and may become injured in the future, but do not yet have a smoking-related disease. • Sims also believes the chances are better than not that those smokers whose tobacco-related illnesses were diagnosed between 1988 and 1997 when the industry enjoyed legal immunity from product liability lawsuits in the state will be allowed to proceed with their claims. Because of a one-year statute of limitations on tort claims, this is a more limited group. • If Sims is correct, the effect of such a decision by the Supreme Court in tandem with recent successes enjoyed by tobacco plaintiffs is likely to be a proliferation of individual tobacco-related litigation in California. The Court must deliver a decision within 90 days, so we look for a decision by late July, or early August. I think this is a tradable event...if the street begins to worry about this, keep an eye on the deterioration of the chart...this may have started yesterday see ya doc ______