The victory of the tobacco kings

In 1994, Lawyers Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt were deployed in the district court in Miami a collective lawsuit to tobacco companies in the United States on behalf of Americans, who lost their health because of their addiction to tobacco. The plaintiffs were the pediatrician Howard I needle, by whose name the lawsuit received the name "The Case of the Complex", and five more people; The total number of residents of Florida affected by systematic smoking was estimated by lawyers at 700 thousand people. The claims were the claims of the five largest American manufacturers of tobacco products - Brown & WilliamSon, Philip Morris, Lorrlard, RJ Reynolds and Liggett. Smokers argued that cigarettes manufacturers for selfish purpose misled them, not reporting anything about the harmfulness of the habit of smoking.

This was the first business of this kind. The example of Florida was soon followed by avid smokers in other states, who ruined their health and stubbornly, cold voices, and now and then elaborating the beads of heartbreaking coughing, proving the judges that they had no idea about the dangers of tobacco. The struggle went with varying success. Lawyers dug up a gold mine. Following private individuals, trade unions and state authorities stretched to the courts, which pay their employees part of the costs of treatment. In 1998, the leadership of Big Tobacco, as the whole industry is called in the United States, considered it good to remove the problem once and for all and entered into negotiations with the governments of 46 states, the Federal District of Colombia and four territories. As a result, tobacco manufacturers pledged to remove the advertisement of their products from cities and transfer to state budgets a total of $ 2,46 billion for 25 years plus to allocate another one and a half billion for scientific research and promotion of smoking among adolescents. The condition, of course, was the refusal of the States to make claims in court.

Meanwhile, the trial in Miami went on as usual. Finally, in July 2000, the court recognized the claims of the plaintiffs and made a decision to pay fabulous compensation of $ 145 billion. The court decision became a sensation, but did not make the slightest impression on the lawyers of the defendants. In vain, I called out to Mike York, a PHILIP Morris lawyer, rejoicing Stanley Rosenblatt on the live CNN: "Call me, Mike! I am waiting for you in my office!" Rosenblatt invited to agree on the amount of real, not hypothetical compensation. “I didn’t call and I will not call,” York answered him calmly from the other half of the screen.

Big Tobacco lawyers immediately appealed and ultimately won the case. The Court of Appeal of the state of Florida refused the smokers to satisfy the claim for several reasons. The first and the main thing is that in the case there are no conditions necessary for a collective claim: in the statement of claim, it was about the "theoretical damage" of health; However, the circumstances in which the victims suffered or could bear this damage were different, and therefore each victim must make his claims individually. In other words, the collective lawsuit has the right to acquit, for example, passengers of the bus that has turned on on the road, but victims of other accidents cannot join them - they must be sued separately. The court of appeal found that in this case the principle of the proper judicial procedure guaranteed by the Constitution was violated, and therefore the reaction of the court of first instance was unconstitutional. In addition, the court recognized the excessive amount of compensation, comparable, as stated in the decision, with the budget of some European countries and devastating for the American tobacco industry. Meanwhile, the current legislation prohibits the appointment of fines that can lead to the bankruptcy of the respondent company. Numerous demagogic attacks made by the lawyers of the plaintiffs were especially noted. So, for example, Stanley Rosenblatt compared the consequences of a criminal "conspiracy" of tobacco companies with slavery and the Holocaust. And among the jury members were African Americans and Jews.

One of the claims in the lawsuit was the Kentukki company Brown & Williamson - a manufacturer of such brands as Kool, Viceroy, Capri and Lucky Strike. In a telephone interview with the faces, the director of the public relations company Mark Smith said that the decision of the Court of Appeal in Miami creates an important precedent and actually closes the topic of absurd claims. “This decision,” he said, “sends a signal to those who are trying to seek the satisfaction of collective lawsuits. The lawyers of such plaintiffs should understand that their hopes for huge compensation are unrealizable because these claims are contrary to the Constitution. If the smokers want to suck with us, they must act individually.”

At one time, the governments of a number of countries appealed in the wave of anti -tobacco lawsuits. I decided to try my luck and Russia. In August 2000, the very court who listened to the “Case of the Clog” received a statement of claim to the head of the department of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kozhin. “The actions of Big Tobacco,” the paper reads, “for decades led to the innumerable loss of lives, diseases, disability, pain, suffering and ailments of consumers of tobacco products and caused economic damage, the burden of which ultimately carried the Government of the Russian Federation.” The legal adviser Philip Morris Mike York immediately stated that the Russian lawsuit has no chance. His argument is very simple: "For many years, citizens of the Soviet Union had no opportunity to buy any cigarettes, except for state -owned enterprises that occupied a monopoly position in the market." What happened to the claim of Mr. Kozhin? “I don’t remember,” Mark Smith answered the “facets”. “But I can say that this is not the only claim of a foreign government. American courts reject such claims.”

To this it is worth adding that Big Tobacco is among the largest Western investors in the Russian economy.