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

To: Walter in HK who wrote (3434)	3/24/1999 8:57:00 PM
From: Theo Karantsalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6439

Fla. State Appeals Ct Upholds $349M Smoking Suit Settlement MIAMI (AP)--A state appeals court on Wednesday upheld a $349 million class action settlement to nonsmoking flight attendants who sued cigarette makers claiming that working on smoky airplanes made them sick. The settlement was first proposed in October 1997 as defense lawyers for the tobacco companies were presenting their case. Circuit Judge Robert P. Kaye approved it in February 1998, but some of the flight attendants initially objected. "All of the class representatives approved, and strongly endorsed, the settlement," Judge Robert Shevin wrote in the ruling filed Wednesday at the 3rd District Court of Appeal. The appeal judges said the settlement was "fair, adequate, and reasonable." "The objectors' complaint that they must now bring individual lawsuits does not render the settlement inadequate," Shevin wrote. The deal calls for $300 million to fund a foundation to sponsor research on diseases suffered by the attendants. The rest of the money goes for attorney fees and costs. The settlement provides no money for individual flight attendants, but allows them to use evidence from the trial in their individual cases. The settlement also relieves them of the burden of proving cigarette smoking caused their illnesses. Flight attendants sued the nation's four largest cigarette makers - Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and Lorillard - saying secondhand smoke on flights gave them lung cancer and other diseases. Smoking on domestic flights was banned in 1990.