Smoker's Suit Against Tobacco Company And Retail Chain Remanded To State Court

Mealey's (October 5, 2020, 8:40 AM EDT) -- ST. LOUIS — A federal judge in Missouri on Sept. 18 granted a lifelong smoker's motion to remand to state court his product liability lawsuit against a tobacco company and a Missouri-based grocery chain and denied the defendants' motions to dismiss, finding that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction because the defendants failed to establish that the chain was fraudulently joined or to prove that the chain could be dismissed under the state's "innocent seller" statute (Michael Thompson v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al., No. 20-980, E.D. Miss., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 171072)....