FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996

An appellate court in Florida has ruled that all cigarette smokers and their survivors who have suffered or died from medical problems caused by their addiction to nicotine can join together in one large class action against the six major tobacco companies.

This means, says law professor John Banzhaf, that the victims of smoking no longer have to proceed individually on a David vs. Goliath basis against those who addicted and injured them.

Instead, he said, they can pile on en mass, and bring one giant proceedings seeking billions of dollars in damages.

The decision today in a case known as Engle v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company may well open the doors for other similar class-action suits in other states, predicted Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

The Engles case was the first one ever to be certified as a class action suit against the tobacco industry, and the first one to now have that certification upheld upon appeal.

Class action certification has also been granted in another Florida case in which 60,000 flight attendants are suing for injury to themselves from secondhand tobacco smoke. [Broin v. Philip Morris Inc.]

A third case in which class action certification has been granted is pending in federal court in New Orleans. [Castano v. American Tobacco Co.]

In addition, five states have also sued cigarette makers on similar legal theories to recover the expenses the states were forced to pay in excess Medicaid and Medicare costs.

ASH is a national legal-action antismoking organization which counsels attorneys bringing such suits, in addition to bringing legal actions on its own against smoking and to protect the rights of nonsmokers.

ASH - ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH 2013 H Street, NW / Washington, DC 20006 / (202) 659-4310