Mealey's Tobacco
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September 27, 2022
Judge Dismisses Discount Cigarette Makers’ Suit Against Colorado For Price Hike
DENVER — A Colorado federal judge granted the state of Colorado and several officials’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a discount cigarette smoker and three manufacturers who argued that the state’s recent hike of minimum cigarette prices violated the dormant commerce clause by discriminating against interstate commerce, finding that the state’s price hike applies equally to in-state and out-of-state businesses.
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September 26, 2022
Jury Awards Dead Smoker’s Estate $1.3M Against Tobacco Company
MIAMI — A Florida jury awarded $1.3 million in compensatory damages to the estate of a man who was a longtime chain smoker and died from coronary artery disease after smoking for more than 40 years but found the smoker 65% at fault for causing his own illness and death,
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September 23, 2022
Juul Files FOIA Suit Against FDA For Docs Used To Ban Its E-Cigs
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) sued the Food and Drug Administration in a District of Columbia federal court seeking to obtain scientific reviews the FDA relied on in deciding to deny Juul’s premarket tobacco application (PMTA) and ban its products from the market, bringing a single claim for violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
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September 21, 2022
Split 5th Circuit Panel Won’t Rehear Vape Companies’ Challenge To FDA Ban
NEW ORLEANS — An equally divided two-member Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 20 denied two flavored vape companies’ petitions for panel rehearing of their petition for review of the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions to ban the companies’ products, while their petition for en banc rehearing remains pending.
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September 19, 2022
Jury Orders Tobacco Company To Pay Dead Smoker’s Family $1B In Punitive Damages
LOWELL, Mass. — A Massachusetts state court jury on Sept. 19 awarded $1 billion in punitive damages plus approximately $8 million in compensatory damages to the family of a woman who died in 2017 from lung cancer caused by smoking after finding that a tobacco company’s conduct caused her death. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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September 19, 2022
Dead Smoker’s Son Tells Jury Tobacco Companies Could Have Made Safer Cigarettes
MIAMI — During opening arguments on Sept. 12, the son of a dead smoker who had her first cigarette by age 9 told a Florida jury that two tobacco companies are liable for damages for designing their cigarettes to be as addictive as possible when they could have sold a safer alternative design, while the companies said that the smoker knew the risks and that their attempts at safer products fell flat with smokers. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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September 15, 2022
2 Native American Companies Will Pay New York $56M In Tobacco Taxes
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on Sept. 13 entered a stipulated judgment resolving a dispute over sale of untaxed cigarettes in New York state between New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Canadian First Peoples cigarette manufacturer and its New York-based distributor, with the two companies agreeing to pay the state more than $56 million.
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September 08, 2022
Judge Rejects $117M Settlement Of Altria Shareholders’ Claims
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on Aug. 25 denied a motion filed by shareholders in tobacco company Altria Group Inc. to settle derivative claims that certain officers and directors of Altria e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. breached their fiduciary duty by orchestrating a $12.8 billion investment into Juul, with the judge calling the settlement “inadequate” in a minute entry.
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September 12, 2022
9th Circuit Asks Hawaii Supreme Court To Address Jurisdiction In Vape Burn Case
HONOLULU — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 7 declined to resolve the appeal of a man who sued a South Korea-based battery maker for the explosion of his e-cigarette device while he was vaping, which caused severe mouth burns, citing a lack of “clear controlling precedent,” and certified two jurisdictional questions to the Hawaii Supreme Court regarding the applicability of the state’s long-arm statute.
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September 12, 2022
7th Circuit Denies Flavored Vape Company’s Challenge To FDA Ban
CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 29 sided with the Food and Drug Administration and upheld its marketing denial order (MDO) banning a flavored vape company’s product from the market in the United States, rejecting its arguments that the FDA changed its standards during the review process or unfairly presumed that the company’s flavored e-liquids would be attractive to youth.
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September 08, 2022
Jury Awards Altria More Than $95M For Infringed E-Cigarette Patents
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A jury in North Carolina federal court on Sept. 7 issued a verdict awarding more than $95 million to Altria Client Services LLC after finding that it established by the preponderance of the evidence that R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR) infringed three of its patents for pod-based vape technology.
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September 08, 2022
5th Circuit Gives FDA More Time To Answer Banned Vape Companies’ Bid For Rehearing
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a Sept. 7 docket entry gave the Food and Drug Administration until Sept. 30 to respond to petitions for panel and en banc rehearing filed by two flavored vape companies who argue that their products were wrongly banned, citing an emerging circuit split over the FDA’s decisions to ban certain companies’ e-cigarette products.
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September 07, 2022
Juul Reaches $439 Million Settlement With 34 States, Territories, Texas AG Says
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Sept. 6 announced that Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) has agreed in principle to pay at least $438.5 million over six to 10 years and to adhere to new corporate policies to resolve a two-year investigation by multiple states into JLI marketing, labeling and sales policies that unlawfully preyed on youth customers.
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September 01, 2022
11th Circuit Orders 2nd Shot At PMTAs For 6 Flavored Vape Companies
MIAMI — A split 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 23 set aside the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial orders (MDOs) to six flavored vape companies after finding that it arbitrarily and capriciously denied their premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs) without considering plans to limit youth access to their products, while a dissenting judge predicted that on remand the companies will again receive MDOs.
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August 30, 2022
Smoker’s Widow Tells Massachusetts High Court Wrongful Death Suit Is Timely
BOSTON — The surviving spouse of a deceased smoker in an Aug. 25 appellant brief urges the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to find that a lower court erred by finding her wrongful death suit against a tobacco company time-barred despite it being filed within three years of the smoker’s death because at the time of his death the smoker would have been time-barred from bringing a personal injury claim for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) caused by smoking.
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August 29, 2022
Florida Jury Awards Dead Smoker’s Family $850,000 For Laryngeal Cancer Death
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida jury on Aug. 24 awarded the family of a deceased smoker $850,000 in compensatory damages and no punitive damages against a tobacco company for Engle claims that it caused his death from laryngeal cancer, while counsel for the tobacco company contended that the smoker knew the risks of smoking but chose to smoke. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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August 15, 2022
Iowa Claims Tobacco Companies Deprived It Of $133M In Settlement Payments
DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Attorney General Thomas J. Miller in a July 28 lawsuit filed in Iowa state court contends that tobacco companies have withheld more than $133 million from the state in “bad faith” by raising “deceptive” objections to their obligatory annual payments under a 1998 master settlement agreement (MSA) between the companies and the state since 2006.
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August 12, 2022
Florida Jury Told Dead Smoker Was Deceived By Tobacco Company’s Misinformation
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida jury on Aug. 10 heard opening arguments in an Engle lawsuit brought by his widow against a tobacco company that she says caused his death from laryngeal cancer, while a tobacco company attorney said the smoker knew the risks of smoking but chose to smoke. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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August 12, 2022
Smoker Wins Remand After Federal Judge Rejects Fraudulent Joinder Argument
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on Aug. 10 granted a Missouri smoker’s motion to remand his lawsuit against three tobacco companies to state court, rejecting R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.’s (RJR) argument that two Florida citizen tobacco companies were fraudulently joined because the plaintiffs’ claims against them are barred by Florida’s statute of repose.
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August 11, 2022
Cigar Groups Urge Court To ‘Permanently’ Enjoin FDA’s Premium Cigar Regulations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three cigar industry organizations in an Aug. 2 brief urge a District of Columbia federal judge to “vacate and permanently enjoin” a Food and Drug Administration rule regulating premium cigars, arguing that as the court found that the rule was arbitrarily imposed in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), “the normal remedy” would be vacatur.
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August 11, 2022
Judge Declares Mistrial In Wrongful Death Suit Against Tobacco Company
BOSTON — A Massachusetts state court judge on Aug. 8 declared a mistrial in a wrongful death action after jurors failed to reach a verdict following three days of deliberation on claims brought against a tobacco company by the family of a deceased smoker, which had claimed that the tobacco company caused the smoker’s addiction and death from lung cancer by designing smoother-tasting menthol cigarettes to intentionally addict smokers. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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August 05, 2022
Court Didn’t Err By Allowing Tobacco Company To Impeach Smoker’s Widow, Panel Says
MIAMI — A Florida appellate panel on July 27 affirmed a defense verdict in favor of a tobacco company against the widow of a smoker, rejecting the widow’s argument that the court abused its discretion by allowing the tobacco company to impeach her testimony during trial with questions regarding whether she altered her testimony about the date her husband developed a smoking-related illness and fell ill to bolster her lawsuit’s chance of success.
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August 04, 2022
Judge Dismisses Vape Shop’s Challenge To Town’s E-Cigarette Sales Ban
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on Aug. 1 granted dismissal of a challenge brought by retailers to a New York town’s ordinance banning sales of e-cigarette products, ruling that the ordinance is not expressly preempted by federal tobacco regulations and does not infringe on the retailers’ rights under the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Const. amend. I.
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August 03, 2022
FDA Warns Court Of ‘Serious’ Consequences If It Vacates Premium Cigar Regulations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services and their respective leaders in an Aug. 2 brief urge a District of Columbia federal judge to remand, not vacate, a rule regulating premium cigars, which the court recently found was arbitrarily imposed, arguing that vacatur would cause “disruptive consequences” and “serious public health harms.”
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August 02, 2022
Juul Says Tribe Can’t Bring MDL Claims For E-Cigs It Did Not Consume
SAN FRANCISCO — E-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) on July 28 moved in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to dismiss a claim against it for violation of the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act (OCPA) brought by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, one of three tribal bellwethers accusing JLI of targeting tribes with illegal and deceptive marketing of e-cigarettes.