10.1 billion dollar judgement reversed
In a highly anticipated ruling, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned a Madison County judgement against the Philip Morris tobacco company. In 2003 Madison County judge, Nicholas Byron issued a 10.1 billion dollar verdict against the tobacco company finding that Philip Morris duped smokers into believing a light cigarette was safer than those of full strength.
The Supreme Court based its 4-2 decision on a section of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, which exempts conduct authorized by U.S. regulatory bodies. The court held that the Federal Trade Commission authorized tobacco companies to characterize cigarettes as "light" or "low tar and nicotine."
The Madison County Record has more on what they are calling a 'landmark ruling'. Two justices wrote a dissent and one did not vote claiming a relationship with one of the attorneys involved in the case.
This is a huge turnaround in legal decisions for Madison County which recently fell out of first place in the rankings of judicial hellholes nationwide. Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast Texas is now number one with Chicago's Cook County taking second place. West Virginia is third with Madison and St. Clair Counties in S. Illinois coming in 4th and 5th. Good news as it is that Madison and St. Clair are no longer 1 and 2, the state is still leading the way for lawsuit shopping.
8 comments:
This whole discussion of "judicial hellholes" and "venue shopping" is absurd. The "judicial hellhole" ranking is based on a poll of corporate defense attorneys. Would the media cover a poll of trial lawyers ranking as a "malpractice paradise" counties they dislike the most, and report it as fact?
Any discussion of judicial reform should be based on facts, not public perception shaped by media campaigns or one-sided opinion polls. And there is zero independent evidence to support the sweeping rollback of legal rights proposed by the insurance industry and corporate lobbyists.
Especially since the current system is already tilted so heavily in their favor.
Imagine a football game where one team gets to write the rules, has the payroll to hire all the biggest players, and picks most of the referees. That’s a pretty good picture of America’s legal system today, where big corporations – not consumers -- have the money to lobby for laws written to their liking; big corporations – not consumers – can afford to keep an army of expensive attorneys at their call; and big corporations – not consumers – can finance multi-million dollar campaigns to elect corporation-friendly judges, from the county courthouse to the Supreme Court.
Given all the advantages that big corporations have, Illinois law gives consumers one small edge – “home field advantage.” Under Illinois law, like most of the courts in the country, an injured consumer has the right to seek justice at their local courthouse, by a jury of their peers, no matter where the injury occurred. Since it’s our tax dollars that are supporting that courthouse, it seems only right. But not to big corporations, who want to take “home field advantage” – an injured person’s only advantage – away.
Now, I'm sure the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees would love it if every game were a home game. But that's not justice, it's a perversion.
Yellow Dog, you do not have the slightest clue what you are talking about. Personal Injury Defense attorneys get kicked around in certain venues, notably Madison County (Cook County is actually not bad for the attorneys).
Venue shopping does not exist? Explain why cases with nearly no connection to Madison County or Cook County end up there.
"Tilted in the corporate favor"? Are you out of your mind? Most jurors will just assume that since a suit was filed a plaintiff was hurt, they need to give the plaintiff something. It is hard work overcoming that bias and it exists everywhere.
The judicial hellholes are real. Venue shopping is real.
YDD, first off, I think discussion of all issues should be based on facts, not public perception shaped by media campaigns or one-sided opinion polls.
Now, I don't understand your "home field advantage" analogy. Did all of the smokers that PM supposedly "duped" live in Madison County, Illinois? Did the majority or plurality of the "plaintiff class" live there? No. So why did the lawsuit get filied there? Could it be because the lawyers for the plaintiff class felt that they had the best shot at getting a big victory (and a big pay day for themselves) there? You bet! That is called venue shopping. It is an abuse of our legal system that needs to be corrected.
But that is beside the fact of today's ruling by the IL Supreme Court....which is the tactics used by PM to "dupe" consumers were specifically sanctioned by the Federal Trade Commission. Imagine that you were being fined for doing something that the government had previously told you was okay. How would you feel about that?
Could someone let us know which Justices were part of the 4-2 majority in this case (Chief Justice Thomas did not take part in the decision)? That is the first thing I would like to know. Thank you.
RANDALL SHERMAN
Secretary/Treasurer, Illinois Committee for Honest Government
Chicago
Majority opinion was written by Garman. Concurred in by McMorrow, Fitzgerald and Karmeier (who also wrote his own concurring opinion). Dissenting opinions by Freeman and Kilbourne.
Interesting point was that this case had nothing to do with the health hazards of smoking. None of the plaintiffs alleged they were harmed by smoking. It was a fraud case, saying they were defrauded into believing light cigarettes were healthy. But, none could show they suffered any financial loss from the fraud either.
Philip Morris argued that they were doing exactly what the FTC told them to do: test cigerettes for tar content and then provide the results of those tests to consumers.
Judges basically agreed, saying that you can't commit fraud when you follow the rules the government gives you. They were playing by the rules of the game at the time.
Karmier's consenting opinion pointed out that it's a little hard to claim damages when you don't have any and in this case the only "damages" the plaintiff's claimed was that they bought light cigerettes when they could have bought regular cigerettes. But, since there was no price difference, they couldn't show any damage.
I'm greatly simplifying this, but if you read the opinions you can't help wondering how this every got to court in the first place. It
really does illustrate how out-of-control the Metro-East courts are.
As to earlier comments attacking the survey of Judicial Hellholes. The reason this survey is important is that the attorneys who participate have a lot of influence over decisions by companies as to where to locate, expand or retain facilities. If companies avoid the Metro-east because of its reputation as a judicial hellhole, that hurts the people living there who want and need jobs.
Further comment re: how they voted on this case: two justices elected as Democrats from Cook County: McMorrow and Fitzgerald voted to overturn; and two justices elected as Republicans from downstate: Garman and Karmeier voted to overturn.
It was clearly bi-partisan and state-wide. The case would have been ended long ago in any court but Madison County.
Here is a link to the full opinion:
http://www.state.il.us/court/Opinions/SupremeCourt/2005/December/Opinions/Html/96236.htm
It seems once again that the general public has just been fu-ked.
Got a smoke?
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