Finally, a Hole in the Dam Protecting a Toxic Industry : Cigarette maker breaks ranks by offering to settle a suit
The tobacco industry’s united front in the face of lawsuits arising from the harm done by cigarette smoking has been pierced for the first time. The Liggett Group is now offering to settle a class-action suit alleging that tobacco companies not only suppressed research showing that nicotine is addictive but manipulated nicotine levels in cigarettes to keep smokers addicted.
If a federal court approves the offer and releases Liggett from the suit, the company would, without admitting any guilt, accept a degree of financial responsibility. It proposes to pay up to 5% of its pretax earnings over the next 25 years, to a maximum of $50 million a year, to support smoking cessation programs. It is also negotiating a settlement with the attorneys general of Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi and West Virginia, who are seeking payments from the tobacco companies for treating Medicaid patients suffering from smoking-related illnesses.
The tobacco industry brags that no cigarette company has ever had to pay anything to settle a smoking suit. The proposed Liggett settlement would invalidate that boast. Besides the cash payments, Liggett also has agreed to comply with proposed federal regulations aimed at discouraging children from taking up smoking. These include a ban on using cartoon characters to sell cigarettes and limits on the distribution of free cigarette samples. Research makes clear that most smokers start in their teens. Whatever the tobacco industry’s denials, youngsters are clearly targeted as the replacement pool for the more than 400,000 Americans who die each year of tobacco-related diseases.
The four other companies in the class-action suit that Liggett Group wants to settle--Philip Morris USA, Lorillard Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.--all say they intend to fight on, having apparently decided that the liability potential of losing a major case makes even the enormous costs of litigation bearable. Bennett LeBow, chairman of Liggett’s parent, Brooke Group Ltd., has concluded on his part that the “possibility of financial catastrophe from product liability suits .J.J. could destroy the industry,” making a settlement prudent. It’s by no means impossible that others in the industry will in time come to the same conclusion. Cigarettes are a toxic product. They kill on a mass basis. Sooner or later juries are sure to look at the growing volume of evidence and insist on accountability for this public health calamity.
