Mealey's Tobacco
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March 30, 2022
Judge Orders Jurisdictional Discovery In Exploding Vape Claims Against Battery Maker
DETROIT — A Michigan federal judge on March 25 dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction the American subsidiary of a South Korean battery maker from a product liability case brought by a man who was severely burned when a battery for his e-cigarette device exploded in his pocket but declined to dismiss claims against the South Korean parent and instead ordered further jurisdictional discovery.
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March 29, 2022
Judge Refuses To Dismiss Korean Battery Maker In Exploding Vape Case
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge on March 24, breaking from rulings in several other jurisdictions hearing similar claims, denied a Korean battery-maker’s motion to dismiss a personal injury lawsuit brought by a man who was injured when batteries in his e-cigarette vape device exploded in his pocket, finding that the plaintiff plausibly alleged that the company does business in the state by shipping thousands of its batteries there.
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March 29, 2022
Judge Adds $317K In Interest To $1M Verdict In Rolling Papers Trademark Dispute
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on March 24 granted a rolling paper company’s post-trial motion to add more than $317,000 in prejudgment interest to a $1 million jury verdict issued against a rival for violating federal trademark and copyright law but denied the company’s requests to treble or enhance damages and to award attorney fees.
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March 23, 2022
N.J. Panel Reverses Court’s Finding Of Jurisdiction Over Korean Battery Maker
TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division on March 18 reversed a trial court’s ruling that a South Korean battery maker was properly served and that the court had specific jurisdiction over it in a lawsuit brought by a man who suffered facial burns after his e-cigarette vape exploded, and remanded the case for further factual analysis on both issues.
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March 23, 2022
Judge Enters Default Judgment Against Bodega For Infringing Juul Trademarks
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on March 18 adopted a magistrate judge’s recommendation, entered default judgment against a Brooklyn-based bodega for selling counterfeit and grey market products that infringed the trademarks of e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and awarded JLI $50,000 in damages.
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March 22, 2022
TCA’s ‘Preservation Sandwich’ Allows L.A.’s Flavored Tobacco Ban, 9th Circuit Says
SAN FRANCISCO — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 18 said Los Angeles County’s ban on sales of flavored tobacco product is not a preempted tobacco product standard under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA), while a dissenting judge reached the exact opposite conclusion and said the TCA preempts such a ban under high court precedent.
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March 17, 2022
Florida High Court Stays Bid For Review Of Reliance Issue In $26.7M Engle Verdict
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on March 11 stayed two tobacco companies’ petition for review of the affirmance of a nearly $27 million jury verdict pending its ruling in another case involving whether Engle plaintiffs must prove that the smoker individually relied on tobacco company statements to prevail on fraud claims.
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March 17, 2022
Florida Supreme Court: Engle Plaintiffs Must Prove Reliance To Win Fraud Claims
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on March 17 ruled 6-1 that Engle plaintiffs must prove that a smoker relied on tobacco company statements to prevail on claims sounding in fraud, affirming a panel’s vacatur of a $6.4 million compensatory damages verdict against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) and disapproving of several conflicting rulings.
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March 10, 2022
Philadelphia Permanently Drops Flavored Tobacco Ban To Settle Lawsuit
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge on March 8 entered an order permanently enjoining the city of Philadelphia from enforcing an ordinance restricting sales of flavored tobacco products and ordering it to withdraw the ordinance per a settlement with tobacco companies that sued the city and won a preliminary injunction blocking the ordinance that was affirmed by the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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March 08, 2022
Husband Of Dead Smoker Tells Jury Tobacco Companies Concealed Risks
LOWELL, Mass. — A smoker’s widower during opening statements on March 7 told a Massachusetts state court jury that the smoker was unable to quit cigarettes despite “dozens” of attempts until shortly before her death from smoking-related illness, while a lawyer for the tobacco company said the company hasn’t made the alleged misleading statements in decades. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE
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March 07, 2022
Philip Morris Urges Florida Supreme Court To Review $3.2M Engle Attorney Fee Award
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Tobacco company Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM USA) filed a March 2 brief on jurisdiction to the Florida Supreme Court urging the court to find that a split appellate panel erred by affirming a $3.2 million attorney fee award to a plaintiff who won an $11 million verdict because the fees were calculated based in part on rates for out-of-state lawyers.
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March 04, 2022
COMMENTARY: Public Nuisance, COVID-19, And The Re-Emergence Of The “Super Tort”
By Stacey Deere, Edd Gaus and EJ Odigwe
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March 04, 2022
Florida Court: Expert Unreliable, Attorney Fee Award Reversed In Tobacco Case
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appeals court on March 2 ruled that a lower court erred in refusing to assess the reliability under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. of an expert’s testimony on appropriate attorney fees in a long-running tobacco case, reversing the award of more than $7 million in attorney fees and prejudgment interest against the tobacco company and remanding the case.
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March 03, 2022
Juul, Co-Founder Says Court-Ordered Deposition Is ‘Irrelevant’ To Engle Trial
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and its co-founder James Monsees on March 1 urged a Florida appellate panel during oral arguments to quash a trial court’s order allowing an Engle plaintiff to depose Monsees, arguing that the proposed topics of the deposition are “irrelevant” to the trial and represent an attempt by plaintiff’s counsel to obtain discovery from JLI for use in other cases.
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March 03, 2022
Tobacco Companies Urge Panel To Reverse $149M Verdict To Smoker’s Widower
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.— Two tobacco companies during March 1 oral arguments urged a Florida appellate panel to reverse a $149 million Engle verdict to the widower of a deceased smoker, saying the jury acted with prejudice by awarding $74.1 million in punitives against each company based on the smoker’s age at death, with one company also arguing the widower was not entitled to bring a wrongful death action based on the date he married the smoker.
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March 01, 2022
Final Approval Of $90M Settlement Sought In Altria Securities Class Action
RICHMOND, Va. — Lead plaintiffs in a securities class action against Altria Group Inc., e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. and the companies’ executives asked a federal judge in Virginia on Feb. 24 for final approval of a $90 million settlement to resolve shareholder claims that the defendants concealed the regulatory and legal risks associated with Juul when Altria invested in it and also moved for approval of an attorney fees award.
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February 28, 2022
Jury Awards Nearly $15.5M To Family Of Smoker Who Died At 50
CLEARWATER, Fla. — A Florida state court jury on Feb. 25 awarded the widow and children of a smoker who died from lung cancer at age 50 punitive damages of nearly $8.5 million, in addition to a previously awarded $7 million in compensatory damages, after finding the smoker relied on a tobacco company’s statements made in furtherance of an industrywide agreement to conceal the addictiveness and health risks of smoking. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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February 25, 2022
FTC Judge Finds E-Cigarette Competition Grew After Altria Investment In Juul
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Trade Commission administrative law judge (ALJ) on Feb. 23 publicly released an initial decision dismissing all claims brought by the FTC against tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) for alleged antitrust activity after finding that competition in the e-cigarette market increased and prices went down after Altria acquired a 35% stake in JLI.
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February 25, 2022
Virginia Supreme Court: Tobacco Company Owed Refund For Tax On Stored Leaf
RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Supreme Court on Feb. 10 affirmed a circuit court and found that a tobacco company is entitled to nearly $12 million in refunds because it overpaid its state taxes by paying usage taxes on tobacco leaf it stored in a Virginia facility, which the court found was not “used” in a manner that would make it a taxable property of the business.
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February 24, 2022
Florida High Court Quashes, Remands 2 More Pre-1999 Engle Punitive Awards
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 18 accepted jurisdiction over two petitions for review of punitive damages awards to Engle plaintiffs under Florida’s pre-1999 punitive damages statute for post-1999 deaths, quashed the awards’ affirmances and remanded the cases to appellate court for reconsideration in light of the court’s ruling in Sheffield.
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February 22, 2022
Florida High Court Quashes, Remands Affirmance Of Pre-1999 Punitive Damages Award
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 4 accepted jurisdiction over a petition and quashed an appellate court’s affirmance of an award issued under Florida’s pre-1999 punitive damages statute to the children of a smoker who died in 2000, ordering the case remanded for reconsideration in light of a recent holding that Engle wrongful death actions arise on the smoker’s death date.
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February 22, 2022
High Court Won’t Review California’s Regulation Of Tribal Cigarette Sales
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22 denied a tribal tobacco business’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling affirming dismissal of the business’s lawsuit challenging California’s taxation and regulation of its cigarette business in part on the grounds that it, as a tribe’s corporate form, is entitled to certain tribal protections under federal law.
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February 16, 2022
Altria Says Administrative Judge Dismissed FTC Challenge To Juul Investment
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tobacco company Altria Group Inc. states in a Feb. 15 press release that an administrative law judge (ALJ) has dismissed a Federal Trade Commission antitrust complaint against Altria and Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) for engaging in allegedly anti-competitive behavior, noting that the decision is “subject to further review by FTC.”
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February 16, 2022
Judge Dismisses Exploding Vape Suit Against Battery Maker Despite Some Contacts
DETROIT — A Michigan federal judge on Feb. 14 granted a battery maker and its Michigan subsidiary’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a man who was burned by an exploding e-cigarette device, finding that while the defendant’s contacts with Michigan were established, the plaintiff failed to show that his cause of action arose out of those contacts.
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February 14, 2022
Magistrates Recommend Default Against 2 Bodegas For Infringing Juul Trademarks
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Two New York federal magistrate judges in separate reports and recommendations issued Feb. 9 and 10 both recommended entry of default judgment against two Brooklyn-based bodegas for selling counterfeit and grey market products that infringed the trademarks of e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI).