EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- A judge whose $10.1 billion judgment against Philip Morris USA in a lawsuit over light cigarettes was thrown out on appeal is asking a court whether he can revive the case, said the Associated Press.
Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron this month asked the Mount Vernon-based 5th District Appellate Court of Illinois to rule whether he has authority to reopen the lawsuit, citing possible new evidence stemming from a separate tobacco case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Byron ruled in favor of [image-nocss] smokers in March 2003, saying that PM USA misled customers into believing they were buying a less-harmful cigarette. That lawsuit, involving 1.1 million people who bought light cigarettes in Illinois, claimed PM USAa unit of New York-based Altria Group Inc.knew when it introduced such cigarettes in 1971 that they were no healthier than regular cigarettes. But the company hid that information and the fact that light cigarettes actually had a more toxic form of tar, the lawsuit claimed.
But the state's Supreme Court overturned Byron's ruling, saying the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allowed companies to characterize or label their cigarettes as light and low tar, so PM USA could not be held liable under state law even if such terms could be found false or misleading.
The U.S. Supreme Court last November let that ruling stand and Byron dismissed the case the next month. But the attorney in that suit, Stephen Tillery of St. Louis, now says his original argument is supported by the U.S. solicitor general in a separate case before the nation's high court. Paul Clementthe Bush administration's top Supreme Court lawyersaid in the new case, Watson v. Philip Morris, that the FTC never authorized or ordered Marlboro Lights to be labeled as lights or use the words lower tar and nicotine.
There is no question the Supreme Court of Illinois got it wrong when it said the words were authorized by the FTC, Tillery said Monday. The question now is what the courts can do about it.
Byron told AP on Monday he could not ethically discuss the matter publicly.
Former Illinois Gov. James Thompson, an attorney representing PM USA, claims the appellate court has no authority to decide whether the case can be reopened and last week asked the Illinois Supreme Court to put a stop once and for all to plantiffs' futile efforts to resurrect their case.
Only this court has the power to set the circuit court straight, Thompson wrote in his filing with the Supreme Court.
PM USA considers the lawsuit over, William Ohlemeyer, the company's vice president and associate general counsel, said in a statement Monday.
Byron's inquiry about reviving the case has threatened to plunge [PM USA] once again into lengthy and expensive litigation, which can result in only one conclusion: that the dismissal of plaintiffs' claims ordered by this [state Supreme] Court must stand, Thompson wrote on the company's behalf in his legal filing last week.
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