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Judge Orders Nationwide Tobacco Suit
Los Angeles Times
September 21, 2002
Laying the groundwork for a tobacco case that would dwarf all others, a federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., ordered that millions of injured smokers be lumped into a nationwide class that would share a single pot of punitive damages from cigarette manufacturers. If upheld on appeal, the novel ruling late Thursday by U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein could result in cigarette makers paying billions of dollars into a giant fund, to be divided by a formula among all Americans who can show proof of smoking-related injuries since 1993.
The ruling is meant to reform what amounts to a lottery system in which a few plaintiffs may reap a windfall in damages while a greater number suffering from identical smoking-related ailments win nothing at all. No estimates have been made of the potential size of the class. But given estimates that more than 400,000 Americans die prematurely each year from smoking-related causes, it could be enormous.
Elizabeth J. Cabraser, a San Francisco lawyer whom Weinstein appointed lead plaintiffs' counsel, said the ruling would help tobacco victims who want to sue but can't find a lawyer to do battle with the industry. Several hundred individual claims are pending in courts around the country, but there would be more if there were lawyers willing to take them.