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Mealey's Tobacco

  • September 09, 2025

    Challenge To Tobacco, Vaccination Surcharges Partly Survives Dismissal

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Continuing a string of at least partial victories for plaintiffs in putative class cases over health plan tobacco surcharges, a North Carolina federal judge ruled that two of three claims against GardaWorld Cash Service Inc. survive dismissal; one of the surviving claims concerns the tobacco surcharge, and the other concerns a surcharge levied against those who didn’t show that they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by a certain date.

  • September 08, 2025

    Tobacco Companies Say 2 Hawaii Smokers Can’t Seek Punitive Damages

    Tobacco companies that are seeking dismissal of two personal injury lawsuits filed against them in Hawaii state courts by smokers with bladder cancer argue that the plaintiffs’ claims for punitive damages are barred by the doctrine of res judicata based on Hawaii’s entry into the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with tobacco companies and that their other claims are not sufficiently alleged.

  • September 08, 2025

    Vape Group, Retailers Appeal After Judge Refuses To Enjoin Wisconsin Directory Law

    MADISON, Wis. — A vaping advocacy group, e-cigarette retailers and two e-cigarette users filed notice of an interlocutory appeal in Wisconsin federal court on Sept. 5, the same day that a federal judge denied their motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining a Wisconsin law that would ban the sale of certain synthetic nicotine e-cigarette products after finding the law within the state’s authority.

  • September 08, 2025

    Dead Smoker’s Estate Drops Appeal Of Loss Against Tobacco Company

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate panel entered an order of dismissal of the estate of a dead smoker’s appeal of a jury’s defense verdict awarding no damages on her claims that two tobacco companies concealed the risks of smoking and caused her death from lung cancer after she smoked cigarettes daily for more than six decades.

  • September 05, 2025

    Court Compels Tobacco Company Arbitration Of $277M State Settlement

    SEATTLE — A Washington state court judge granted an opposed motion by Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) to compel arbitration of claims brought against it by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and other tobacco companies for allegedly making underpayments pursuant to a settlement, to which PM was not a party, that they reached with the state over payment obligations under the 1998 master settlement agreement (MSA).

  • September 05, 2025

    Dead Smoker’s Daughter Seeks Review After Tobacco Company Wins Appeal

    BOSTON — The daughter of a dead smoker filed an application to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for further appellate review (FAR) after the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of her lawsuit against a tobacco company for causing the smoker’s lung cancer and death after smoking for more than 25 years, for which a jury awarded no damages.

  • September 04, 2025

    Hearing Held On Viability Of Juul Share Dilution Claims

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A hearing was held Sept. 3 in the Delaware Chancery Court on motions filed by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), its founders and board members and affiliated investment vehicles to dismiss a derivative complaint accusing them of breach of fiduciary duty for allegedly orchestrating financing that diluted the value of JLI shares before giving 1.2 billion JLI shares to the investment vehicles at a low price.

  • September 03, 2025

    Appeal In Smoker’s Death Dismissed After $9.3M Judgment Satisfied

    A Florida appellate court dismissed an appeal filed by tobacco company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) of a more than $9.3 million verdict against it for causing the death of a smoker from coronary artery disease (CAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after the parties confirmed before the trial court that the full judgment has been satisfied.

  • September 03, 2025

    Vape Companies Tell 8th Circuit Iowa’s E-Cigarette Directory Properly Enjoined

    ST. LOUIS — A vaping advocacy association and five vape companies filed an appellee brief urging the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a judge’s ruling enjoining the state’s new law regulating sales of e-cigarettes as preempted by federal tobacco regulations, writing that the court correctly found the law preempted by federal regulation of tobacco products.

  • September 02, 2025

    Judge Vacates New Graphic Warning Rule For Tobacco Products

    BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A Georgia federal judge on Aug. 29 granted summary judgment in favor of a tobacco company and several retailers and vacated the Food and Drug Administration’s final rule requiring graphic warnings on all tobacco products pursuant to the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) after finding FDA’s “failure to disclose the raw data for its studies” violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

  • August 28, 2025

    Vape Company Accuses FDA Of ‘Unlawful Inaction’ On Pending Vape Application

    LAFAYETTE, La. — A vape manufacturer, joined by three local retailers, filed a lawsuit in Louisiana federal court accusing the Food and Drug Administration of leaving it in “regulatory limbo” by failing to act for more than three years on the manufacturer’s appeal of a marketing authorization decision, asking the court to find FDA has violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and compel it to act.

  • August 13, 2025

    $299,000 Class Deal Wins Final OK In ERISA Row Over Plan’s Tobacco Surcharge

    CHICAGO — Resolving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over annual $1,152 surcharges imposed on about 431 health plan participants who use tobacco, an Illinois federal judge on Aug. 12 gave final approval to a $299,000 class settlement and made awards in the amounts requested, including $99,666.67 for attorney fees and a $5,000 case contribution award.

  • August 13, 2025

    E-Cig Maker To High Court: Federal Circuit Gets Patent Damages Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Electronic cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for a writ of certiorari that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of a jury’s award of more than $95 million in damages for infringing on another company’s tobacco pod technology conflicts with Supreme Court precedent on the apportionment of damages in patent infringement cases.

  • August 05, 2025

    2 Smokers With Cancer Sue Tobacco Companies, Retailers In Hawaii State Court

    HONOLULU — A smoker with lung cancer and a smoker with bladder cancer filed separate personal injury complaints in Hawaii state courts against tobacco companies and retailers, both seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the defendants for concealing the risks of smoking and getting them addicted in the 1960s and 1970s.

  • August 05, 2025

    9th Circuit Uses Effective Vindication Doctrine In ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Case

    PASADENA, Calif. — Calling the holding in the tobacco surcharge case “consistent with” decisions that five sister circuits issued in a variety of Employee Retirement Income Security Act disputes in the past few years, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 4 ruled in part that a health plan arbitration provision’s “representative action waiver violates the effective vindication doctrine and is unenforceable.”

  • August 04, 2025

    Judge Says Federal Fine For Unauthorized Vape Violates 7th Amendment

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge on Aug. 1 granted summary judgment in favor of a vape company and ruled that a more than $20,000 civil penalty levied against it through an administrative proceeding initiated by the Food and Drug Administration is unconstitutional and violates the company’s right to a jury trial, citing SEC v. Jarkesy.

  • August 01, 2025

    Tobacco Settlement Doesn’t Bar Smoker’s Punitive Damages Claim, Hawaii Judge Says

    WAILUKU, Hawaii — A Hawaii state court judge declined to dismiss a lawsuit filed by an elderly smoker with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who brought a products liability and fraudulent misrepresentation lawsuit against tobacco companies and a local retailer, writing that Hawaii’s entry into the 1998 master settlement agreement (MSA) with tobacco companies does not preclude individual smokers from seeking punitive damages.

  • July 31, 2025

    Split Panel Reverses $8.1M Verdict For Smoker’s Kids Over Jury Instruction Error

    MIAMI — A split Florida Third District Court of Appeal panel on July 30 reversed a trial court’s final judgment worth $8.1 million in compensatory damages in favor of the children of a dead smoker, finding that the court’s instructions on fraud-related findings from the Engle trial were improper and remanded for a new trial.

  • July 30, 2025

    Part Of ERISA Putative Class Action Over Tobacco Surcharge Survives Dismissal

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — As the number of recent cases challenging health plans’ so-called tobacco surcharges continues to grow, a Minnesota federal judge on July 29 ruled that one of three claims in a putative class action over such surcharges survives dismissal “to the extent that it is premised on the failure to notify Plan participants that recommendations of an individual’s personal physician will be accommodated.”

  • July 30, 2025

    Tobacco Companies Say Philip Morris Can’t Arbitrate $277M State Settlement

    SEATTLE — Several tobacco companies that jointly resolved a dispute with the state of Washington over their mandatory payments to the state under the 1998 master settlement agreement (MSA) filed briefs in Washington state court opposing a bid by Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) to compel arbitration of claims they brought against it for alleged underpayments, arguing that it is prohibited from compelling arbitration of a settlement to which it is not a party.

  • July 30, 2025

    Iowa Says Court Wrongly Enjoined New E-Cigarette Registry Law As Preempted

    ST. LOUIS — An Iowa state official filed an appellant brief in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that a federal court erred by enjoining the state’s new law regulating sales of e-cigarettes as preempted by federal tobacco regulations pursuant to a challenge brought by a vaping advocacy association and five vape companies, writing that Eighth Circuit precedent allows state regulation of tobacco sales.

  • July 30, 2025

    E-Liquid Maker Says 9th Circuit Should Reverse FDA’s Ban Of Products

    SAN FRANCISCO — An e-liquid manufacturer filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s ban of its product in a case that has been stayed for more than three years, arguing in part that the court should reconsider the FDA’s “appropriate for public health” standard now that the administrative law precedent of Chevron deference has been overruled.

  • July 29, 2025

    Hearing Set To Confirm Satisfaction Of $9.3M Judgment For Smoker’s Death

    A Florida state court judge on July 28 set a hearing on an unopposed motion by tobacco company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) to confirm the satisfaction of a more than $9.3 million judgment awarded against it by a second jury for causing the death of a smoker from coronary artery disease (CAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), while on the same day a pending appeal of the judgment was stayed.

  • July 25, 2025

    Florida Panel Revives Smoker With Lung Cancer’s Nicotine Defect Lawsuit

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The First District Florida Court of Appeal reversed a trial court’s dismissal with prejudice of a second amended complaint against two tobacco companies filed by a smoker with lung cancer, writing that the smoker deserves a chance to plead additional facts in support of her strict liability claim.

  • July 21, 2025

    Vape Retailers Voluntarily Dismiss Challenge To Alabama Registry Law

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A retail trade association and a convenience store owner on July 18 filed a notice in Alabama federal court voluntarily dismissing their challenge to the state’s new law enacting requirements for tobacco products that restrict the sales of certain e-cigarette products, after previously stipulating to withdraw their motion to temporarily restrain and preliminarily enjoin the new law from taking effect.