Free Republic

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the European Union can’t pursue a lawsuit accusing tobacco giant R.J Reynolds of taking part in a global money-laundering scheme that sponsored cigarette-smuggling in Europe. In a 4-3 ruling, the justices said the EU has no right to sue in U.S. courts because federal racketeering laws don’t allow recovery for injuries occurring outside the United States. The EU and 26 of its member states allege RJR coordinated the scheme with the help of Colombian and Russian criminal groups and laundered money through New York-based financial institutions. The EU claims the company’s actions hurt the...

A Florida jury has awarded the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer punitive damages of more than $23 billion in her lawsuit against the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the nation's second-biggest cigarette maker. The judgment, returned on Friday night, was the largest in Florida history in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a single plaintiff, according to Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the woman's lawyer, Chris Chestnut. After a four-week trial and 11 hours of jury deliberations, the jury returned a verdict granting the widow $7.3 million and the couple's son $9.6 million in compensatory damages....

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today refused to hear an appeal by two North Carolina-based tobacco companies who claimed California's tough anti-smoking ads smeared their reputations. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., now Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American Inc., and Lorillard Tobacco Co. of Greensboro, N.C., had asked the justices to overturn a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that rejected the companies' claims that their First Amendment rights were violated by California's ad campaign. California uses part of an 87-cent tax on every package of cigarettes to fund health education that includes a campaign to discourage smoking. The ads included a...

WASHINGTON (AP) - R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday that challenged a judgment awarded to the widow of a teacher who died of cancer. The Supreme Court did not comment in turning down Reynolds' request to hear the case. The nation's second-largest cigarette maker already paid the $195,000 judgment while the appeal was pending. Lawyers said it was the first time the company paid damages in an individual product liability lawsuit. Floyd J. Kenyon Sr., of Sarasota, Fla., died of cancer in 2002, 60 years after he first started smoking as a teenager. He was diagnosed...

CHICAGO (AP) Almost 150 years after Andrew Jackson Hurdle was torn away from his family and put on the auction block as a 9-year-old slave, his daughter is seeking justice for him. Hannah Hurdle-Toomey, 71, of Belleville, signed on as one of two people from Illinois named in a class-action lawsuit seeking reparations from 19 companies that they say benefited from the slave trade. The other is Marcelle Porter, a 74-year-old Chicago woman who said her great-grandmother was a slave in North Carolina. A Jan. 26 hearing is scheduled in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Judge Charles Norgle could dismiss...

<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge in California entered a directed verdict Tuesday in favor of the top two U.S. cigarette makers in a suit brought by the family of a deceased smoker, saying the plaintiffs did not bring enough evidence to back their claims that Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds were responsible for the smoker's death.</p>

ORLANDO, Fla. - A couple that held a fund-raiser Thursday for Bill McBride, Florida's Democratic nominee for governor, have fought for years to end the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and once had Elian Gonzalez over for dinner. Elizabeth Bagley, President Clinton's ambassador to Portugal, and her husband, Smith Bagley, an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune, were expected to raise more than $100,000 for McBride at their home in Washington, D.C. When told about the Bagleys' anti-embargo background, McBride campaign manager Cathy Kelly said, "I don't know about this." McBride could cost himself votes among Florida's Cuban-American community...

NEW YORK - Philip Morris wants to black out the online gray market for smokes. Only problem is, the company is tilting at ghosts. On Sept. 19, Philip Morris USA, a division of Philip Morris, filed eight lawsuits in New York and California against Web sites Dfshop.org, cheapmarlboro.com, smoke.shop4all.net and others for the illegal sale of foreign-made cigarettes to United States and Canadian consumers. The company is also suing over trademark infringement and false claims that the sites make about the legality of their sales. In two complaints released by Philip Morris, the company names defendants with WHOIS-registered addresses in...