A federal district court in Topeka, Kansas, has ordered the release of around 2,500 sensitive, internal, tobacco-industry related documents held by the Liggett Group. The tobacco industry has vehemently resisted the release of the documents, which are from Liggett's files, but were produced jointly with other tobacco companies and other organisations, such as the Tobacco Institute and the Council for Tobacco Research.
This, and a settlement of a lawsuit against four big tobacco companies by 60,000 flight attendants in which they claimed they were affected by passive smoking, has been hailed as a breakthrough for non-smokers. The test case in Miami was brought by a non-smoking woman flight attendant, Ms Norma Broin, who has recovered from lung cancer.
The companies have agreed to pay $300 million for the study of tobacco-related diseases and have also agreed they can now be sued individually by the claimants, but not for punitive damages.
The flight attendants and their survivors had claimed that second-hand smoke in aircraft caused them to be affected by cancer and other illnesses. They had sought $5 billion in compensatory and punitive damages.
A significant part of the settlement is that the four companies have now agreed to assume the burden of proving in future cases that second-hand smoke could not cause five specific diseases: emphysema, lung cancer, chronic pulmonary disease, bronchitis and sinusitis. Before this, plaintiffs had to prove that passive smoking could cause these diseases.
One legal expert predicts that the industry will now be sued in new class action lawsuits by persons who work in bars, factories and offices where smoking is allowed.
The companies involved are Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown and Williamson and Lorillard. They said that the flight attendant settlement is "consistent with the much broader legislative resolution now pending before Congress".
Meanwhile, in Texas there has been a further postponement in the $14 billion trial against the tobacco industry to recover money spent by the state treating tobacco-related illnesses, because the trial judge needs treatment for prostate cancer.
Texas is among 41 states that have sued tobacco companies for the costs of treating tobacco-related diseases under various national health schemes, such as Medicaid and Medicare. Recently, the industry settled smaller claims from Florida ($11.3 billion) and Mississippi ($3.36 billion), but it intends to contest the Texas claim because it believes it has a stronger case.
These cases are going ahead while the White House and Congress are deciding whether to approve the offer by the tobacco industry to pay at least $368 billion over 25 years in return for a settlement of the 41 state lawsuits and a ban on future class-action suits.
The White House has been pressing for stiffer controls on nicotine content and on advertising. The tobacco industry is threatening to withdraw its offer if tougher conditions are added to the original settlement.