A 77-year-old Daytona Beach woman has won $300,000 in what likely is the first verdict against a tobacco company in Central Florida out of thousands of suits filed statewide by ailing, longtime smokers. A Volusia jury has decided that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is partly liable for the lung cancer suffered by Stella Koballa. A circuit judge will review the verdict at a future court hearing. “We’re happy with the result and we feel ... Jump to full article >>

THE tobacco industry will take its fight over plain packaging to the Federal Court, after a tribunal affirmed the government’s right to withhold the secret legal advice authorising the plan. British American Tobacco has confirmed to The Australian it will appeal against an Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruling refusing the company access to the Keating-era document on the grounds of legal professional and parliamentary privilege. Under th ... Jump to full article >>

DELAND — A jury deliberated for nearly five hours today before finding a tobacco company was only partly responsible for a woman’s lung cancer. The jury of six, one of them a smoker, found Stella Koballa, 77, of Daytona Beach was herself 70 percent responsible for the pain, suffering and other damages she endured after she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1996. The jury found Koballa suffered $1 million in damages from her addictio ... Jump to full article >>

COLUMBUS — The question of whether smokers can light up in bars, restaurants, and other public places has worked its way up to Ohio’s highest court. The Supreme Court Wednesday agreed to hear an appeal of November’s 10th District Court of Appeals ruling that upheld enforcement of the voter-approved ban on indoor public smoking against a challenge brought by a Columbus bar that had racked up $30,000 in fines for repeat violation ... Jump to full article >>

Florida consumers send more than $3.7 billion annually to tobacco giants in Richmond, Va., and Winston-Salem, N.C., and a few other states. These major tobacco companies control more than 80 percent of the market in Florida and the nation. Phillip Morris/Altria and RJ Reynolds manufacture Marlboro, Camel and other top brands at enormous factories employing thousands of workers in states other than Florida. Four of the biggest companies also pay ... Jump to full article >>

In his closing argument, Adam Trop reminded the jury that Allen Oliva was a pack-a-day smoker for 35 years, so there was little question that he was addicted to smoking. The addiction had to be a legal cause of Mr. Oliva’s COPD, said Mr. Trop. “Nobody smokes that much without being addicted, and nobody gets the disease without smoking that much. It’s really common sense.” For R.J. Reynolds, Jones Day’s Mark Belasic ... Jump to full article >>

A group of tobacco farmers has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against True Blend Tobacco Inc. On Friday, lawyers Trung Nguyen and James Zibarras appeared in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Woodstock on behalf of 49 growers who have contracts with True Blend. The lawyers obtained a “Mareva” injunction, which freezes all of the assets of True Blend Tobacco Inc., as well as two of its directors, Victor Osztrovics and Bria ... Jump to full article >>

THE marathon Rolah McCabe tobacco lawsuit finally ended in Melbourne yesterday – more than eight years after she died of lung cancer. Lawyers for parties involved in multiple proceedings told Justice Stephen Kaye in the Victorian Supreme Court that they had settled their differences. It is believed that the case that has become a landmark around the world for smokers seeking to sue tobacco companies chewed up tens of millions of dollars in ... Jump to full article >>

Several Kentucky farmers have filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that a prominent tobacco merchant failed to honor contracts to purchase their burley tobacco. The lawsuit was filed against Universal Leaf North America last week in Harrison Circuit Court. The suit claims hundreds of farmers lost what amounted to millions from the 2010 crop year, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. The plaintiffs, including Jerry Feagan of Berry, Steve La ... Jump to full article >>

Snapping a six-case plaintiff winning streak, Liggett Group, in a rare appearance as solo defendant in an Engle-progeny trial, prevailed in a case brought on behalf of smoker Betty Blitch. In his closing statement, Wilner Hartley’s Woody Wilner urged the jury, when considering how much fault to assign to Ms. Blitch, to keep in mind that “This was a combined, massive effort to sell cigarettes, that Liggett belonged to, and everybody ... Jump to full article >>