Altria Group cleared one legal hurdle to splitting its tobacco and food units on Monday when the US Supreme Court let stand a ruling severely limiting the tobacco industry's liability for past fraud.

"One of the major litigation hurdles has now been resolved favourably enough," Bonnie Herzog, tobacco industry analyst at Citigroup Investment Research, said in a research report. "Therefore, Altria Group is closer to its eventual break-up of its company."
The US Supreme Court denied a justice department request to review an appeals court ruling that barred the government from seeking US$ 280 billion in its civil racketeering lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
That means the most the industry would have to pay if it loses is likely to be US$ 14 billion the government has sought to fund a stop-smoking programme and anti-tobacco campaign, analysts said.
Altria chairman and chief executive Louis Camilleri had said the company could take steps to break into two or three separate companies, but only after the justice department case and two others are resolved.
The other two cases are in Illinois and Florida. The Illinois State Supreme Court is deciding whether to uphold a US$ 10.1 billion award to smokers of ‘light’ cigarettes. The class action suit contends Altria's Philip Morris USA unit deceived consumers into thinking those cigarettes were safer than regular ones.
The maker of Marlboro cigarettes and other brands is also waiting for the Florida Supreme Court to rule on whether it will reinstate a US$ 145 billion, class action verdict against the company and other cigarette makers that was overturned by an appeals court.
The courts have not said when they will rule on their respective cases, but analysts have become increasingly expectant in recent weeks. (pi)