Marshall Islands litigation victory

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Cliff Douglas forwards the following note and news release:

	A LANDMARK DECISION was issued today by the High Court of the
Republic of the Marshall Islands, who is hearing the first case filed by a
foreign nation against the United States cigarette companies.  The case is
modeled on the attorney general reimbursement actions that were brought in
the United States for tobacco-related health care costs that the
government has had to bear.  The Marshall Islands court ruled that U.S.
cigarette manufacturing companies will have to stand trial there, probably
commencing in the first half of 1999. 

	This is the statement issued today by the Marshall Islands' lead
attorney: 


STATEMENT OF DON R. RIDDLE, ESQUIRE REGARDING THE COURT'S DECISION IN THE
MARSHALL ISLANDS' LAWSUIT AGAINST THE U.S. CIGARETTE INDUSTRY

Riddle & Baumgartner, LLP Houston, Texas December 7, 1998

	The decision by the High Court of the Marshall Islands granting
jurisdiction over the major U.S. cigarette manufacturers is an historic
breakthrough in the ongoing effort to eradicate the worldwide tobacco
epidemic.  The Court's decision means that the U.S. tobacco industry now
faces the very real possibility that it will be held accountable for the
devastating effects of its products on the people of the Marshall Islands,
a disproportionate number of whom have become ill and died prematurely as
a direct result of smoking American cigarettes. 

	The Marshall Islands' ruling is a first.  Never before has a court
of law required U.S. cigarette makers to appear at trial on charges that
they conspired to addict the citizens of a foreign country to their
products.  Never before has the U.S. tobacco industry been ordered to
defend itself in court against charges that it has aggressively targeted
the people of developing world nations with fraudulent claims about the
health effects and addictiveness of mass-marketed cigarettes. 

	The Marshall Islands is a small nation, and its leaders make no
pretense that they will be able to force the transnational tobacco
industry to correct its misdeeds everywhere.  However, they recognize that
they are pioneers.  The Marshall Islands was the first foreign nation to
take the U.S. cigarette industry to court.  And its leaders recognize that
by setting this successful example they will encourage the governments of
other nations, in Micronesia and around the world, to follow suit by
bringing their own cases against Big Tobacco. 

	At the same time that the major cigarette companies have
eliminated one litigation threat by settling the state attorneys general
lawsuits in the United States, they suddenly face the start of a new, more
threatening trend.  The State of Mississippi began what came to be known
as the "Third Wave" of litigation against the tobacco industry in the
United States.  History may one day record that the Marshall Islands began
a tidal wave of international litigation that held the industry
accountable around the world.