Giving credit where due, however, the Times did score with this funny Dec. 4 op-ed by Karen Karbo on the dire safety hazards to be found in the classic bedtime story Goodnight, Moon.
Posts Tagged ‘tobacco’
Lawyers preparing soft-drink suit
“Richard Daynard, a Massachusetts law professor who made his name working as a consultant on class actions against tobacco companies, is part of a broad effort by both private attorneys and nonprofit groups to sue Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and other soft drink companies for selling high-calorie drinks in schools.” (Caroline Wilbert, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 29; Caroline E. Mayer, “Lawyer coalition targets soft drink manufacturers”, Washington Post/Detroit News, Dec. 4; Todd Zywicki and vast comment section; Colossus of Rhodey). In the Boston Globe magazine, contributor Michael Blanding writes supportively of “a national legal movement to make soft drinks the next tobacco” (Oct. 30).
For more on the search for ways to blame business for our collective struggle with the waistline, see many entries in our Eat, Drink and Be Merry section. More on caffeine “addiction” theories: Aug. 18-20, 2000, Jun. 1, 2004. More on vending machine suits: Jul. 3, 2003. And as regular readers know, we’ve been covering Prof. Daynard’s activities for a long time; see Apr. 21-23, 2000 and many others.
“7th Circuit Giveth–Then Taketh Away”
Budget Rent A Car won sanctions for its adversary’s filing of a frivolous appeal, but lost its ability to recover its fees when it submitted what the court, in a Judge Posner opinion, called an “exorbitant” nine-thousand-dollar bill. (David L. Hudson Jr., ABA Journal eReport, Nov. 18). But were the fees really that exorbitant? Point of Law explores why they perhaps might not have been.
Also on Point of Law:
- the Vioxx MDL rules on expert evidence;
- attorneys get $22 million while their ostensible clients get nothing, or worse than nothing;
- a study on the impact of litigation on small business;
- plaintiffs aren’t kidding when they say they’re going to make welding the next asbestos;
- how the multistate tobacco deal penalizes the growing Sun Belt states; and
- a plaintiffs’ lawyer makes an interesting nationwide cardiological diagnosis.
Outdoor smoking bans
Advancing toward prohibition, 25 feet at a time:
On Tuesday, Washington state voters will consider the first statewide ban on smoking within 25 feet of buildings that prohibit smoking….
Limits on smoking outdoors have taken off in the past two years, says Maggie Hopkins of the American Non-smokers’ Rights Foundation.
Among the examples: many beaches in California (see Jun. 24, 2004), and hospital grounds in Iowa: “Patients and visitors will have to trek off hospital grounds — one campus is 44 acres — to smoke.” (Dennis Cauchon, “Smoke-free zones extend outdoors”, USA Today, Nov. 1). See Jul. 27 (smoking while driving); Aug. 15 (prison terms proposed for smoking too close to buildings).
Tobacco: Supreme Court shoots down feds on disgorgement
Just in from SCOTUSBlog, an embarrassing defeat for the tobacco-industry-bashers in both Clinton and Bush administrations on one of their key retroactive-liability demands:
The Court’s refusal to hear the Justice Department appeal in U.S. v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al. (05-92) takes off the table in the government’s mammoth lawsuit against the industry the most significant punishment that could be imposed if the tobacco companies are found to have violated federal anti-racketeering law (RICO). The Court gave no explanation for its denial of review; there were no recorded dissents.
For more, see Jun. 21 and links from there.
P.S. As Ted reminds us, this was an “interlocutory” appeal, i.e. one taken before a final judgment, and the Justices almost never agree to hear appeals at that stage; they might still be willing to consider the issue after the court below reaches judgment. That the Justice Department pursued appeal at this stage at all is a part of the embarrassment (and indicates the degree to which the Department is bending to political pressure). More: Jacob Sullum, Oct. 21.
“Next tobacco” watch: many Wall Street suits fizzle
After the stock market’s tech-driven bubble popped a few years back, lawyers advertised heavily for burned-investor clients, hoping to reap billions at the expense of Wall Street firms whose research had been exposed as shoddy or worse. But expectations have deflated, and now Pensacola, Fla.’s Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Echsner & Proctor, whose doings are often chronicled in this space, has settled about 300 or so investor claims against Merrill Lynch “for approximately three cents on the dollar”. Although it is far from unusual for plaintiffs to recover sums in arbitration, lawyers have had trouble proving that most of their clients relied on the tainted research in making investment decisions. A Merrill Lynch spokesman claims the firm has “overwhelmingly prevailed in these cases”, while a plaintiff’s lawyer counters that “we are not doing too badly”. (Susanne Craig, “Heard on the Street: Payouts low in research suits”, Wall Street Journal/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oct. 13). More: Jul. 10, 2003.
“Trailblazing Anti-Tobacco Litigator Agrees to Disbarment”
No need for a public accounting dept.:
In a rare case of thievery at a large New Jersey firm, tobacco litigation pioneer Alan Darnell admitted that he misappropriated money from his partners and clients at Woodbridge’s Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer and has volunteered for disbarment.
The reporter’s description of thievery in Garden State legal circles as “rare”, in case you were wondering, turns out to mean it’s not often the lawyers are caught misappropriating their own partners’ or clients’ funds in prohibited ways.
By bowing out of the profession before the investigation was complete, Darnell saved himself and 140-lawyer Wilentz Goldman from a public airing of the details of what money he took, whom he took it from and what he did with it.
Oh, well then that’s okay. Mustn’t risk giving the general public a peek at such matters, after all.
Darnell, who was known for filing asbestos and pharmaceutical claims, “was a leading member of the Wilentz Goldman team that represented plaintiffs in mass tort and product liability cases. …Big tobacco was his biggest target.” Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer is perhaps the state’s best-known plaintiff’s firm (one of its ads) and is also renowned for its political connections, which have brought it much lucrative state business.
The state’s Office of Attorney Ethics will also be sealing the records of its investigation of Darnell, and it doesn’t appear that there are further legal proceedings against him in the offing. Remember this story next time lawyers denounce the alleged conspiracy of silence regarding doctors’ misconduct (Henry Gottlieb, New Jersey Law Journal, Oct. 6).
Canada high court OKs tobacco-recoupment suits
The Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously upheld a law enacted by the province of British Columbia which announces a retroactive right to recoup from tobacco companies money spent on illnesses due to smoking. (commentary: Edmonton Sun, Ezra Levant). Canada thus becomes the first country to emulate the principle announced by state attorneys general in the U.S., which culminated in the notorious $246 billion state-tobacco settlement. As parents used to say: if you saw your friend jump off a cliff, would you do that too? (cross-posted from Point of Law)
Busybody Tennessee AG vs. Gretchen Wilson
Tennessee attorney general Paul Summers sent a warning letter (PDF) to country music star Gretchen Wilson (“Redneck Woman”) demanding that she stop pulling a can of Skoal smokeless tobacco out of her pocket on the concert stage; she’d been waving the can to illustrate a song about the “Skoal ring” outline in the back pocket of a pair of jeans. Summers’s letter invoked the 1998 multistate tobacco settlement, although neither Wilson nor her concert venues ever signed that agreement or could be in any way bound by it; it went on to insinuate that Skoal’s manufacturer had procured her “promotion” of the product, an insinuation that turned out to be quite false, the singer’s representative explaining that she had had no dealings with the company. Nonetheless, perhaps fearful of suffering the fate of the much-boycotted Dixie Chicks, Wilson capitulated instantly and promised not to display the tin on stage any more, whereupon Summers expressed satisfaction (PDF) and called her a “good citizen”. Had the object of suppression been something other than tobacco, do you think by now we might have heard any outcry about artistic freedom or musicians’ rights of expression? (“Country singer Gretchen Wilson asked to keep smokeless tobacco in back pocket”, AP/CourtTV, Aug. 29; Gail Kerr, “Wilson put quick stop to spat over Skoal”, Aug. 31; CommonsBlog, Aug. 27; Nick Gillespie and Jacob Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”, Aug. 29.) More: Will Wilson comments at the AEI Federalism Project’s AG Watch (Aug. 29).
Smoke a cigarette, spend a year in prison
Baton Rouge, Louisiana: “Smokers beware: Puffing within 25 feet of the door of a publicly used building, a park or in other public spaces could cost you $500 or a year in prison.” (Mike Dunne, “Smoking restriction approved”, The Advocate (Baton Rouge), Aug. 11)(via Gene Healy).
More: Julian Sanchez finds one of the more depressing lines in the story to be: “No smokers stepped forward to talk against the proposal,” and Reason “Hit and Run” readers discuss (Aug. 15).