U.S. Files Arguments in Federal Tobacco Suit

The Justice Department filed court papers countering tobacco industry arguments in the government case seeking to hold cigarette makers responsible for billions of dollars spent treating sick smokers. The filing also reiterates the government’s claim that Philip Morris Cos., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. and other companies concealed the risks of smoking for almost half a century. The suit, filed in September, seeks to recover more than $20 billion a year that government programs such as Medicare have spent treating smoking-related illnesses. The industry contends that the Clinton administration is using the courts to try to win a political fight it lost when Congress rejected national anti-smoking legislation. The tobacco companies previously reached a separate $246-billion settlement with state attorneys general, which didn’t immunize them from the federal case. Separately, Philip Morris Cos. and other cigarette makers lost a court appeal to overturn a gag order that prevents them from telling their investors about the progress of a Florida class-action suit over smoking-related illnesses. The trial is now in the damages phase, after a Miami jury decided in July that cigarette companies are liable for causing death and disease to smokers.