Word: liggett
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...DONALD COHN, ATTORNEY FOR THE LIGGETT GROUP...
...cheer about of late, but they raised huzzahs last week -- and watched the value of their corporate shares climb -- in the wake of two important court cases. In Boston, a federal appeals court ruled that the Surgeon General's warning labels on every package of U.S. cigarettes shielded Liggett & Myers, based in Durham, N.C., in a $3 million lawsuit filed by the heirs of a lung cancer victim. Just four days earlier in Atlanta, another appeals court had made a similar ruling in favor of American Brands of Old Greenwich, Conn., the maker of, among other things, Pall Mall cigarettes...
...Boston case concerned Joseph C. Palmer, of Newton, Mass., who smoked L& M cigarettes for 23 years. After he died of lung cancer in 1980 at age 64, Palmer's wife Ann and his mother jointly sued Liggett & Myers, charging that the company had failed to provide adequate warnings about the dangers of cigarette smoking. A U.S. district court judge ruled that the company could be held liable under Massachusetts state laws; that decision was overturned last week...
...based. The federal warning provides uniform labeling of cigarettes, the courts reasoned, and was intended to balance concerns about the health of smokers against the economic benefits derived from domestic commerce in tobacco products. Said Judge John Brown for the first U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Palmer vs. Liggett & Myers: "It is inconceivable that Congress intended to have that carefully wrought balance of national interests superseded by the views of a single state, perhaps of a single jury in a single state...
Tobacco stocks surged after the decisions. On the day of the Boston ruling, American Brands climbed by 2 1/8, to close at 56 5/8. Shares of Philip Morris, the largest U.S. cigarette firm, which makes the Marlboro and Merit brands, rose 6 3/4, to 119 7/8. (Shares of Liggett & Myers are not publicly traded.) The cases, however, may still be appealed to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a host of similar cases are hanging fire; Liggett & Myers alone is the target of about 30. Of the estimated 125 product-liability cases pending against all tobacco companies, RJR Nabisco, manufacturer of Winston...