ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Sunday Morning News

What Will Happen Next in Florida Trial Against Tobacco Industry?

Aired July 9, 2000 - 8:18 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Florida, the penalty phase of the long trial against the tobacco industry appears close to wrapping up and experts are anticipating a huge fine against big tobacco. So what's next?

For that we turn to tobacco analyst Mary Aronson, who has a lengthy history in products liability and tobacco litigation. Mary is in our Washington bureau. Good morning, Mary.

MARY ARONSON, TOBACCO ANALYST: Good morning.

PHILLIPS: I have to ask you, it's very rare that class actions like this go to trial, correct?

ARONSON: Correct. Usually in a situation where you have a lot of individuals injured and there is a product causing the injury that has a very long latency period, during the interim those people could have been exposed to a variety of things in the environment that could have caused their injuries. So it's kind of hard to lump them together in a class action suit.

PHILLIPS: Well, I keep hearing this Florida case being described as unusual. That seems to be the key word.

ARONSON: Yes.

PHILLIPS: With regard to award money, that's another unusual aspect. This could be the largest amount, correct?

ARONSON: Correct. I think historically the largest punitive damage award ever made in a lawsuit was something like $4.5 billion in a car fire case in California and the largest verdict ever, I believe, was in the Penzoil (ph) case, which was around $11 billion or $12 billion. This conceivably could dwarf either of those cases because, again, it's a class action. You have somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people in the state of Florida who claim to be injured by tobacco products and, you know, they could conceivably get quite a bit of money in this punitive damage phase.

PHILLIPS: Does this bring about concerns for you in what this could mean for state settlements and national lawsuits?

ARONSON: It brings about a lot of concerns for anybody who's anticipating suing the industry, who's anticipating getting paid by the industry. Right now in place we have the master settlement agreement, which was the $240 billion plus agreement that the states arrived at about a year and a half ago. That could conceivably be in jeopardy, along with the federal lawsuit and a variety of other individual suits if the decision in Florida with respect to punitive damages is so large that the industry is forced to pay out a lot of money and to pay it out at once.

PHILLIPS: Now, Mary, I was reading one of your articles about this proposed bill which is making its way through the Florida Senate. Could you talk a little bit about that and the concerns about how it may violate the constitution?

ARONSON: Actually, that bill was already enacted. It was enacted in May and it was specifically enacted to protect, I think, the tobacco industry, although it's sort of generic in the way it was written. But basically what it would do, let me go back a bit. This week we're looking at the punitive damage phase. The fear is that the amount of money that could be awarded in that phase is going to be very large.

The industry is going to want to appeal the verdict. In order to appeal it, it has to stay the case, stop any further action in the case. Normally to do that you have to post a bond. If you, if the industry were to have to post the bond in the full amount of the verdict, the feeling is it could become financially insolvent. So what the legislation did is to limit the amount of bond that has to be posted to about $100 million.

But one of the issues is whether or not that legislation will be ignored by the judge or whether it will be, you know, respected by the judge and applied in this case. In either event, I think one side or the other is going to appeal that.

PHILLIPS: So what kind of precedent do you think this case is going to set?

ARONSON: Well, I think the biggest concern for the industry right now is the, you know, the solvency issue. Some people wonder whether or not if the plaintiffs in Florida succeed in this class action that success will spawn additional class actions in other states for individual smokers. I tend to think not because if a state's court system like the particular, you know, abides by class action, likes class action, they're going to do it. Otherwise, I think they'll tend to stick to the laws they already have in place and a lot of states have thrown out class action lawsuits.

PHILLIPS: Tobacco analyst Mary Aronson, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

ARONSON: Thank you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top  © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.