Seven years after the action was filed, a trial may be starting this week on a lawsuit claiming cigarette makers plotted to get smokers addicted and keep them hooked.
Jurors chosen more than a year ago to hear the statewide class-action suit were told to show up in court on Monday. But it isn’t clear where a trial would be held. Civil District Judge Richard Ganucheau has no courtroom, since he retired on December. 31.
He has a special appointment to preside over the case. Jurors were told to report to his old courtroom for preliminary instructions, court representative Walt Pierce said on Friday.
The suit, filed in 1996, does not seek individual damages. Rather, it says the tobacco industry should pay for programmes to help smokers quit and to monitor the health of current and former smokers.
The Louisiana Supreme Court said the first phase of the trial would concentrate on such issues as marketing of cigarettes to children, alleged manipulation of nicotine levels, and whether industry officials knew they were making a dangerous product or whether they engaged in fraud and conspiracy.
If jurors decide that the companies are liable, they would then decide what kinds of monitoring and stop-smoking programs should be available and what members of the class qualify.
The trial, expected to last six months to a year, had been expected to start last fall but was delayed for a number of reasons, including bad weather, a leaky roof in Ganucheau’s courtroom and questions before the state Supreme Court.
Tobacco companies contend that smoking is a matter of personal choice and that medical programs proposed to help smokers have not been proven to work. – Sapa-AP