OTHER NEWS - June 24, 1995

Cigarette Makers Lose Round in Court: Judge Okla Jones II of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana issued a ruling allowing plaintiffs’ lawyers to start taking depositions and collecting documents to prepare their groundbreaking lawsuit against cigarette makers. Manufacturers sought to delay discovery while they pursue an appeal of the decision by Jones to certify the so-called Castano case as a nationwide class-action suit, which could involve as many as 50 million U.S. smokers and billions of dollars in claims. The Castano lawsuit names big tobacco companies, including Philip Morris Cos., RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp., American Tobacco Co., Loews Corp., Brooke Group Ltd., UST Corp. and BAT Industries and their subsidiaries. Lawyers will be able to collect documents and conduct emergency depositions of witnesses who are sick or dying. Michael York, a lawyer for Philip Morris, said the ruling is close to what the manufacturers wanted, short of continuing the stay of discovery.