Mealey's Tobacco
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February 29, 2024
Judgment Entered After Jury Rejects Dead Smoker’s Estate’s Defective Design Claims
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida state court judge entered final judgment rejecting wrongful death claims brought against a tobacco company and a retailer that sold its products by the estate of a smoker who died after being diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. A jury previously rejected the estate’s claims that filtered cigarettes smoked by the decedent were defective.
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February 28, 2024
10th Circuit Affirms FDA Ban Of Vape Products, Deepening Circuit Split
DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 27 affirmed the Food and Drug Administration’s ban of two vape companies’ flavored e-liquid products, siding with several other circuit courts that have found that the FDA properly informed vape companies of its standards for evaluating their products before denying their premarket tobacco application (PMTAs) and ruling that its bans of the petitioners’ products were not arbitrary or capricious.
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February 28, 2024
Tribe Asks Court To Enjoin Federal ‘Death Blow’ To Its Cigarette Sales
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A tribe filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in California federal court seeking to bar the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and other federal law enforcement officials and agencies from deeming it out of compliance with the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, writing that such actions would “strike a death blow” to its business operations as an “on-reservation tribally-owned retailer.”
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February 26, 2024
NJOY Dismisses Suit Against Last Remaining Flavored Vape Seller
LOS ANGELES — E-cigarette maker NJOY LLC, a subsidiary of Altria Group Inc., on Feb. 23 filed a notice of dismissal of its claims against the last remaining flavored disposable vape (FDV) seller accused in its complaint of harming its business by allegedly illegally selling FDVs, a month after a judge dismissed its claims against dozens of other defendants.
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February 22, 2024
Tobacco Defendant’s Failure To Produce Asbestos Evidence Not Willful, Justice Says
NEW YORK — There is no evidence that a tobacco company’s failure to produce reports it no longer has in its possession about testing performed on asbestos-containing Micronite cigarette filters was willful, a New York justice said in denying a motion that sought to compel production or dismiss the company’s answer.
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February 14, 2024
Judge Compels Arbitration Of E-Cig Buyers’ Antitrust Claims Against Juul, Altria
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Feb. 13 granted a motion by e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and two of its corporate officers to compel arbitration of antitrust claims brought against them and tobacco company Altria Group Inc. by two direct purchaser plaintiffs (DPPs) and dismissed the DPPs’ claim for injunctive relief against JLI and Altria.
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February 14, 2024
Flavored Vape Company Urges High Court To Review Circuit Split Over FDA Bans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A flavored e-liquid maker filed a petition for a writ of certiorari urging the U.S. Supreme Court to address a circuit split over whether the Food and Drug Administration acted arbitrarily in banning e-cigarette products from the market based on a “previously unannounced requirement” for evaluating manufacturers’ premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs).
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February 12, 2024
Time Limits On Widow’s Trial Against Tobacco Company Affirmed By Mass. High Court
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a trial court did not abuse its discretion by imposing a 56-hour time limit on a smoker’s widow’s wrongful death trial against two tobacco companies and a local retailer and did not prevent the plaintiff from fully presenting her case to the jury.
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February 12, 2024
New Mexico Jury Rejects Claims Against Tobacco Company For Smoker’s Cancer Death
LOS LUNA, N.M. — A New Mexico state court jury returned a defense verdict in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a dead smoker against Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) and a local retailer, rejecting claims that the defendants were liable for the decedent’s addiction to Marlboro- and Marlboro Light-brand cigarettes and her eventual death from lung cancer.
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February 09, 2024
Panel Issues Mixed Ruling In Appeal Of Post-Grant Review Of Vape Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 9 said that although an obviousness challenge by Philip Morris Products S.A. to patented vaping technology was correctly decided in favor of the tobacco giant, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board wrongly found inadequate written descriptive support for two other claims.
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February 06, 2024
Split 5th Circuit Denies FDA’s Forum Shopping Argument In Vuse E-Cigs Ban Row
NEW ORLEANS — A split Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied the Food and Drug Administration’s motion to dismiss or transfer consolidated petitions by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRV) and several retailers challenging the FDA’s bans of several RJRV flavored Vuse e-cigarette products, rejecting FDA’s arguments that the petitioners lack standing or are engaged in forum shopping.
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February 01, 2024
Panel Affirms No Cancer Finding In Engle Case Brought By Smoker’s Widow
MIAMI — A Third District Florida Court of Appeal panel on Jan. 31 affirmed a trial court’s entry of judgment and denial of a dead smoker’s widow’s motion for a new trial after a jury found that her husband did not have lung cancer, thereby dismissing all of her claims against two tobacco companies.
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February 01, 2024
Panel Affirms $2.5M Compensatory Damages Award To Smoker’s Estate In Engle Case
MIAMI — A Florida appellate panel on Jan. 31 affirmed a $2.5 million compensatory damages verdict issued against two tobacco companies in favor of the estate of a smoker who died in 1993 from lung cancer, rejecting arguments that an expert witness’s comment that smoking may have caused the smoker’s ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage were improper or inflammatory.
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January 31, 2024
Mandate Issued, Panel Won’t Rehear Reversal Of Smoker’s Widow’s $2M Punitive Award
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal on Jan. 30 issued a mandate after denying a motion for rehearing of its ruling reversing a $2 million punitive damages award in favor of a dead smoker’s widow on her Engle claims against a tobacco company.
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January 31, 2024
Bidi Challenges New FDA Ban Of Tobacco-Flavored Disposable E-Cigarettes
ATLANTA — Bidi Vapor LLC filed a petition to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial order (MDO) banning sales of its tobacco flavored Bidi sticks products, which it received more than a year after it won a set-aside and remand of the FDA’s ban of its flavored e-cigarette products before the same court.
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January 26, 2024
Tribal Corporation Is Immune In Cigarette Sales Dispute, Calif. Federal Judge Finds
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A tribal corporation is entitled to sovereign immunity from claims brought against it by California for the corporation’s allegedly illegal sales and distribution of cigarettes because the corporation acts on behalf of Alturas Indian Rancheria to the extent that it is an “arm of the tribe,” a California federal judge found in partly granting the corporation’s motion to dismiss.
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January 25, 2024
High Court Urged To Review Circuit Split Over ‘De Facto’ Ban Of Flavored Vapes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A flavored vape company argues in a petition for a writ of certiorari that the U.S. Supreme Court must address a circuit split over the e-cigarette regulatory scheme implemented by the Food and Drug Administration, which it says implemented a de facto ban of flavored e-cigarette products without notifying applicants and “violated” high court precedent regarding “fair warning” to regulated companies.
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January 24, 2024
Judge Remands Baltimore’s Cigarette Filters Lawsuit Against Tobacco Companies
BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge granted the mayor and City Council of Baltimore’s motion to remand their public nuisance suit against six tobacco companies for contributing to litter by selling cigarettes with non-biodegradable filters, finding that the state law claims attacking cigarette filters do not implicate federal legal questions and are not preempted by federal law.
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January 22, 2024
High Court Won’t Review Owner’s Individual Liability In Tobacco Trademark Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 22 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a wholesale company and its owner seeking review of whether the owner may be held individually liable under the Lanham Act for an $11 million trademark infringement judgment despite his argument that he did not knowingly commit an act of infringement, which they claimed is the subject of a circuit split.
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January 19, 2024
Tobacco Company Says $6M Verdict For Dead Smoker’s Children Based On ‘Forgery’
MIAMI — A tobacco company tells a Florida appellate court in a Jan. 18 opening brief that a $6 million verdict against it should be reversed because the jury found that a smoker who died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was an Engle class member based on medical evidence that the treating physician called “a forgery.”
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January 18, 2024
E-Cigarette MDL Plaintiffs Seek Final Approval Of $45M Settlement With Altria
SAN FRANCISCO — The plaintiffs in multidistrict litigation in California federal court against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries filed motions for final approval of a $45 million settlement with Altria and a roughly $13.7 million attorney fee award to resolve the economic loss claims of JLI e-cigarette purchasers.
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January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
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January 12, 2024
Dead Smoker’s Representative Says $8.8M Judgment Still Final Despite Amendment
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The representative of a dead smoker’s estate filed an appellee brief urging a Florida appellate panel to reject a tobacco company’s argument that an $8.8 million compensatory damages award in her favor must be reduced to $295,000, arguing that the underlying judgment in her favor is still final despite amendments made after the death of the smoker’s statutory survivor.
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January 12, 2024
2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Securities Fraud Claims Against Philip Morris
NEW YORK — Addressing two matters of first impression, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s dismissal of securities fraud claims brought by shareholders against tobacco company Philip Morris International Inc. and several of its executives based on its statements regarding its studies of heat-not-burn tobacco products, rejecting shareholder claims that PM made material misrepresentations about the products.
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January 08, 2024
High Court Won’t Review California’s Statewide Ban Of Flavored Tobacco Products
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 8 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by tobacco companies and a retailers’ association challenging California’s voter-back ban of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol, which they had argued was preempted by federal regulations under past high court precedent.