R.J. Reynolds’ Shareholder’s Report from Winston-Salem: A “Good Year,” a Proposal to Merge and a Death Toll that Must Not Be Acknowledged
By Edward L. Sweda, Jr. Like clockwork, the 2015 Reynolds American (RAI) Annual Shareholders Meeting started precisely at 9:00 A.M. on Thursday May 7, 2015 at the company’s headquarters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Seventy-five minutes later, the meeting was adjourned. Before I could attend the meeting, I had to proceed through intense security, with machines […]
PHAI Takes Cigarette Companies to Court
For Immediate Release Contact: Mark Gottlieb – 617-373-2026 The Public Health Advocacy Institute (“PHAI”) announced today that its newly formed Center for Public Health Litigation has filed lawsuits against two major tobacco companies and several local distributors on behalf of the families of two former smokers who suffered devastating disease from smoking […]
PHAI’s Center for Public Health Litigation Launches Ad Campaign Seeking Cigarette Industry Victims
The Center for Public Health Litigation, a project of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, has launched an advertising campaign in Massachusetts to help inform victims of cigarette companies of their legal rights. While Massachusetts is the best state in the nation to hold cigarette makers responsible in court for […]
Historic $79 Million Cigarette Settlement Signifies Beginning of Wave of Tobacco Cases in Massachusetts
If you someone in your family was recently harmed by smoking, please see our cigarette lawsuit information page. Boston FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Mark Gottlieb – 617-373-2026 Massachusetts is now the most favorable state in the country to bring a cigarette smoking personal injury case. A Massachusetts Tobacco Case Information Hotline has been established for victims of […]
Lorillard Inc., v. United States Food and Drug Administration, No. 11-440
On February 21, 2011, Lorillard Tobacco Company and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company filed a complaint[1] against the FDA in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the composition of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (“TPSAC”) and alleging that TPSAC failed to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (“FACA”). TPSAC […]
Disc. Tobacco City & Lottery, Inc. v. United States
In August, 2009, tobacco manufacturers and sellers[1] brought suit[2] in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky against the FDA, challenging provisions of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (“Tobacco Act”). In a case previously known as Commonwealth Brands, Inc v. United States, plaintiffs challenged the following requirements as […]
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that all cigarettes sold in Massachusetts are defective
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Edward L. Sweda, Jr. or Mark Gottlieb 617-373-8462 or 617-373-2026 2010 Verdict Reflected Juror Outrage at Handouts of Free Cigarettes to Children. The SJC today unanimously rejected Lorillard Tobacco Co.’s attempt to evade liability in a case brought by Willie Evans, whose mother Marie died in 2002 at the age of […]
PHAI’s Friedman and Gottlieb Co-author: “Soda and Tobacco Industry Corporate Social Responsibility Campaigns: How Do They Compare?” in PLoS Medicine
PHAI senior staff attorney Lissy Friedman and executive director Mark Gottlieb collaborated with Lori Dorfman, Andrew Cheyne and Asiya Wadud of the Berkeley Media Studies Group to produce this article published today in PLoS Medicine. Soda companies’ PR campaigns are bad for health: Health advocates need to organize strong public health campaigns to educate the […]
Jury in Miami Assesses $25 Million in Punitive Damages Against Tobacco Firm in an Engle Progeny Trial
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Edward L. Sweda, Jr. (617) 373-8462 A Florida state jury today assessed $25 million in punitive damages against Lorillard Tobacco Co. for its reprehensible misconduct involving the lung cancer death of Coleman Alexander. His widow Dorothy, a retired nurse who brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the company, was awarded $20 […]
$17.3 million verdict against Lorillard in Jacksonville, FL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Edward L. Sweda, Jr. or Mark Gottlieb (617)373-8462 or (617)373-2026 A jury awarded the family of a smoker who died of lung cancer in 1994 at the age of 63 a total of $6 million in compensatory damages. The jury assessed Lorillard Tobacco Company 65% responsibility for the death of Jacqueline […]
