A Pinellas County jury has ruled in favour of Philip Morris USA in one of the first tobacco lawsuits following a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision that decertified a class action but allowed former class members to file individual lawsuits.

“The jury reached the correct result and determined that the plaintiff failed to meet the criteria established by this particular court to prevail at trial,” said Murray Garnick, Altria client services senior vice president and associate general counsel, commenting on behalf of Philip Morris USA.
Garnick said that the case, Gelep v. RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris USA, was the third case tried to verdict since the Florida Supreme Court’s decision which allowed former Engle class members to proceed by relying on findings by the former Engle jury. Approximately 4,000 claims, or roughly half of those filed in the wake of the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in the Engle case, are pending in federal court and have been put on hold pending a federal appeals court review of the constitutional issues that arise from allowing the plaintiff to rely on prior Engle jury findings. (pi)