[Intl-tobacco] U.S. judge dismisses Ontario tobacco claim (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

U.S. judge dismisses Ontario tobacco claim
$40-billion suit sought to recover health care costs
Source: National Post, Friday, 8/11/00
Cristin Schmitz Southam News

OTTAWA - Ontario's US$40-billion lawsuit against major North American
tobacco companies for smoking-related health care costs has been turfed
out of U.S.  federal court, handing Big Tobacco its second major legal
victory against Canadian governments in as many months.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman of Washington, D.C., dismissed
Ontario's health costs recovery suit, which alleges that Imperial Tobacco,
Phillip Morris Companies Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. and
other cigarette makers conspired to misrepresent and hide information
about the health risks of smoking and the addictive nature of nicotine,
thus injuring smokers and forcing the province to spend billions on
otherwise unnecessary medical expenses.

A spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care declined
comment. "Our counsel has received the court's decision. It is currently
under review and we have 30 days to determine if there will be an appeal,"
Geoff Bell said. The province's goal was to recover as much as
US$40-billion spent treating smoking-related illness.

Quietly released Aug. 7 during the civic holiday in Ontario, Judge
Friedman's decision comes barely a month after an unrelated, US$1-billion
suit by the federal government against the R.J. Reynolds tobacco empire.
That suit, claiming lost taxes due to alleged tobacco smuggling, was
tossed out by a different U.S. District Court judge. Canada is appealing.

In dismissing Ontario's action, Judge Friedman relied on the same
reasoning he used last December when he threw out a similar suit by
Guatemala on the basis that the injuries suffered by that government were
"too remote" to permit legal recovery against the defendants. The judge
suggested that if foreign governments, or their citizens, believe they
have a case against the tobacco industry, such claims should be brought by
smokers in their home courts.

He suggested that to permit such foreign suits to proceed could flood U.S.  
courts with complex and expensive litigation. "This concern applies with
particular weight in this instance, where dozens of foreign governments,
as well as other foreign health payers, might attempt to bring similar
suits in U.S. courts," Judge Friedman wrote in the Guatemala decision.

In dismissing Ontario's case, the judge noted that "to the extent that
Ontario's lawsuit may be distinguished from Guatemala's lawsuit . . . none
of the distinctions make Ontario's alleged injury any less remote or, as a
result, any more viable."