Pennsylvania and Maryland are appealing a December court decision by the North Carolina Court of Appeals that allowed three major tobacco companies to cease making payments to tobacco farmers.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett's office appealed a decision that allowed Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Lorillard Tobacco to cease annual payments to Pennsylvania and Maryland farmers under the National Tobacco Grower Settlement Trust agreement. The appeal was filed in North Carolina Supreme Court.
''We feel it is important to pursue this case on behalf of our farmers,'' Corbett said. ''We are asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to force tobacco companies to live up to their original agreement.''
Corbett said that according to the original terms of the agreement, tobacco companies still owe about USD 9 million to Pennsylvania farmers through 2010. The companies had agreed to pay farmers in Pennsylvania USD 11 million as compensation for decreased sales as a result of the settlement. A provision in the trust agreement, however, states that the trust agreement payments could end in the event of federal legislation benefiting farmers.
The tobacco companies contended they no longer have to make annual payments to farmers as a result of implementation of the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act in 2004.
Though the act benefited other tobacco-growing states, farmers in Pennsylvania and Maryland do not receive funds through the legislation. (pi)