REENSBORO, N.C., April 4 — A federal judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit by farmers that accuses cigarette manufacturers of conspiring to set prices offered for tobacco.Posted on 04/05/2002 12:23:45 AM PST by JohnHuang2
REENSBORO, N.C., April 4 — A federal judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit by farmers that accuses cigarette manufacturers of conspiring to set prices offered for tobacco.
Farmers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee filed the lawsuit in 2000, and the ruling late Wednesday by Judge William L. Osteen Sr. of Federal District Court means it could now cover 500,000 growers.
"I'm as happy as I've ever been in my life," said Lamar DeLoach of Statesboro, Ga., president of the 500-member Georgia Tobacco Growers Association. "Tobacco farmers are really pretty well on their last leg."
The lawsuit says the companies have rigged the government-sponsored system of auctions to keep prices low. Agreements among competitors to fix prices, allocate markets or rig bids are illegal under federal law.
The companies — R. J. Reynolds Tobacco; Philip Morris; Lorillard Tobacco, a unit of Loews; and Brown & Williamson, a unit of British American Tobacco P.L.C. — have denied any wrongdoing and argued that farmers from various states are so diverse that they could not be lumped into one class.
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