An appeals court ruling allows about 4,000 plaintiffs in so-called Engle cases against US tobacco companies to use prior jury findings to make their case, but also sets boundaries on how those findings could be used.

A federal appeals court in Atlanta yesterday denied the request of Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds and other U.S. cigarette makers to block lower courts from applying a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision.
The companies said that a series of factual conclusions endorsed by Florida’s highest court in the 2006 “Engle” decision cannot fairly be used against them in individual smokers’ trials. The companies argued that smokers were trying to apply the findings too broadly to avoid having to prove their cases.
The prior jury findings included those that cigarette makers conspired to hide information on smoking’s health effects and that they made false statements about their products.
While the ruling limits how the findings can be used, it permits the federal cases, which were on hold, to go forward. Besides the 4,000 cases that were filed or transferred to federal courts in Florida, another 4,000 are pending in state courts. The appeals court said that district courts will have to apply Florida law and decide what facts in the plaintiffs’ cases are established by the Engle findings.
In a press release, R.J. Reynolds welcomes the ruling, saying that “the logic of this opinion supports our position that every Engle-related judgment to date against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the Florida state courts should be reversed.” (pi)