‘Light’ cigarette claims are heating up
by Minnesota Lawyer staff
Last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Altria Group Inc. v. Good, allowing plaintiffs to proceed with their claims over the marketing of “light” cigarettes, has revived lawsuits all over the country — and may inspire even more.
The Good case originated in Maine, but cases have been filed in many other states as well, including Minnesota, Missouri and Massachusetts, according to Minneapolis appellate attorney Kay Nord Hunt, one of the attorneys representing the Minnesota plaintiffs.
“Each state has its own version of consumer protection laws. [So they will] all be a little bit different,” she said.
Doug Blanke, director of the Tobacco Law Center at William Mitchell College of Law, said that the Good ruling removes one of the big clouds that has been hanging over these cases.
“It’s sort of a green light to go forward, or to file a new one,” he said. “It would be reasonable to think that this would encourage the filing of more cases or the energizing of cases that already exist.”
Blanke noted that plaintiffs in the light cigarette cases still face a number of other hurdles, however. They must present the proof necessary to persuade the court to certify a class; they must prove causation, and they must prove damages. “This ruling has by no means made it easy to defeat the tobacco industry,” he said.
“The light cigarettes cases are different. While no tobacco case is simple, they are simpler than traditional cases because you are not fighting about what caused someone’s lung cancer or heart disease,” said Blanke.
Rather, in consumer protection cases, the argument is that someone was deceived into spending their money on something they otherwise would not have purchased.
“The question is, what did the tobacco companies say in their advertising and their messaging, and did it influence people in deciding, what to buy and how much money did they spend when they made their purchase,” said Blanke.
Minneapolis attorney Gale Pearson, who is representing the Minnesota plaintiffs, said she would like to see more cases filed and more attorneys involved.
“It would be really helpful to get a larger team of attorneys taking them on and maybe we can get some real change in what they are allowed to do to us,” she said.
