Judge Allows Tobacco Firms’ Trial to Continue

Evidence in a cigarette liability case is sufficient for a jury to consider whether three cigarette manufacturers conspired to cover up the dangers of smoking, and the trial should continue, a judge said Thursday.

“The evidence presented . . . permits the jury to find a tobacco industry conspiracy, vast in its scope, devious in its purpose and devastating in its results,” U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin said.

He said evidence indicated the companies conspired to conceal and misrepresent information on the dangers of smoking and to “refute, undermine and neutralize information coming from the scientific and medical community.”

At the same time, Sarokin dismissed a claim that the companies sued in the liability case--Liggett Group Inc., Philip Morris Inc. and Lorillard Inc.--caused Rose Cipollone’s lung cancer by not marketing a safer cigarette.

Sarokin’s comments came in a 33-page opinion requested by the cigarette makers, who asked for dismissal of the case and an end to the trial, which began Feb. 1.

The companies are being sued by Cipollone’s husband, Antonio Cipollone of Lakehurst, whose wife died at age 58 in 1984 after smoking for 40 years. Attorneys for Cipollone allege that the woman was a victim of a campaign by the cigarette makers to undermine warnings about the dangers of smoking.