Tobacco Trial Focuses on Mailings

The chief executive of Loews Corp.’s Lorillard Tobacco testified Wednesday that his company, which makes Newport cigarettes, sent millions of direct mail ads and coupons to consumers without ensuring they were over 21.

Martin L. Orlowsky testified in the Justice Department’s $280-billion racketeering lawsuit against major cigarette makers that his company mailed the material to people who said they were over 21, without requiring proof, such as a credit card or a driver’s license number.

“There are mailings made where we don’t have government-issued I.D. or third-party verification,” Orlowsky, 62, said under questioning by Justice Department lawyer Stephen Brody.

The U.S. says Lorillard and other tobacco companies sell to kids even though a 1998 settlement of state suits included restrictions on youth marketing.

Before trial, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the government could recover $280 billion only if it proved cigarette makers were likely to violate federal racketeering law in the future.

The companies say such an award would bankrupt them.

Orlowsky didn’t dispute Brody’s assertion that Lorillard sent 4.2 million mailings, including discount cigarette coupons, to 2.6 million people in 2002. He said Lorillard had stricter controls than those required by the 1998 settlement to prevent mailings to people under 21. Fewer than one-tenth of 1% go to minors, he said.

Brody also asked Orlowsky about Lorillard’s public position on whether smoking causes specific diseases, including liver and pancreatic cancer.

The company has no public stance on the matter except to say that “we accept the surgeon general’s and public health authorities’ views on smoking and public health,” he said.

In testimony in 2000, Orlowsky admitted on behalf of Lorillard for the first time that smoking causes lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease. He had testified in 1993 that smoking was a risk factor but that it hadn’t been proved to cause any disease.

“I don’t think smoking causes disease in my personal view,” Orlowsky testified at the time.

In addition to Lorillard, the defendants include Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA unit; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.; British American Tobacco’s British American Tobacco Investments Ltd. and Vector Group Ltd.’s Liggett Group Inc.

The trial, which is expected to take six months, started on Sept. 21.