B&W; Turns Over Papers in Minnesota Case

Faced with the prospect of fines of $100,000 a day, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. turned over to plaintiffs’ attorneys in Minneapolis 1,114 documents that a Minnesota judge had ordered the company to relinquish in the state’s massive case against the tobacco industry. On Dec. 30, Ramsey County District Judge Kenneth J. Fitzpatrick ordered Louisville, Ky.-based B&W;, the nation’s No. 3 cigarette manufacturer, to pay a $100,000 fine for flagrant violations of pretrial discovery orders and threatened to issue a default judgment and further fines unless it turned over documents that the state had been seeking for months. In that ruling, Fitzpatrick said that B&W; and American Tobacco Corp., which B&W; acquired in 1994, had “flaunted” the judicial system and “blatantly” disobeyed court orders, among other misconduct. B&W; immediately paid the $100,000 fine and on Friday--the deadline for compliance--turned over the documents. Jury selection is set to begin on Jan. 20 in the case, in which the state and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Minnesota are seeking damages from cigarette makers for money spent treating sick smokers and for alleged violations of consumer fraud and antitrust laws.