Altria looks ahead after 'light' ruling
CNNMoney.com
December 16, 2005

The Illinois Supreme Court handed Altria's Philip Morris USA unit a major victory Thursday in a statewide class-action case over "Marlboro Lights" and "Cambridge Lights" cigarettes.

The ruling, written by Justice Rita Garman, overturned a $10.1 billion verdict that had threatened to force the company into Chapter 11 when it was first handed down in March 2003. The vote to reverse was 4-2, with one justice not participating.

With the victory, Altria has cleared the first of three legal hurdles it has said it must dispose of before spinning off its Kraft unit. The two remaining obstacles are the so-called Engle class-action in Florida-where the Florida Supreme Court is now deciding whether to reinstate a $145 billion punitive damages verdict against the tobacco industry that was thrown out by an intermediate appeals court in 2003, and the Department of Justice's civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case against the tobacco industry. 

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Richard Daynard, a professor at Northeastern Law School and chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, said the ruling would not end anti-smoking advocates' battles over "light" cigarettes.

"Going into this we had one state supreme court on our side," he said, referring to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which has allowed a "light" class action to go forward. "Now we've got one on each side."

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