The Third Wave of Tobacco Tort Litigation

51 Pages Posted: 18 Sep 2001

Abstract

This draft chapter from a forthcoming book on tobacco regulation analyzes the third wave of tobacco tort litigation, beginning in 1993. By now, the total lack of success in the courthouse over the course of the preceding forty years, involving two waves of litigation, is a familiar story. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the 1992 case of Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., construing the 1965 cigarette labeling act to preempt state tort claims based on negligent failure to warn, along with the tobacco industry's success in arguing that smokers assumed the risks of tobacco use, not only brought closure to the second wave of tobacco tort litigation but appeared to foretell that another wave of tort litigation might be a long time in coming.

As it happened, however, less than two years later, the industry was under assault from two formidable directions: private class action tort litigation and state health care reimbursement suits. Within the relatively short span of another five years, the industry had entered into multibillion-dollar settlements in the state litigation, remained precariously positioned in the class action litigation, and faced an uncertain future in the newly rejuvenated individual tort suits. A clearly discernible third wave of tobacco-related claims showed no signs of abating, and raised the specter of unpredictable, potentially catastrophic liability far more vividly than had ever before been the case.

This study discusses the developments that so dramatically challenged the industry's long-time success on the litigation front. I indicate that the industry had to contend with two convergent and unexpected circumstances: The revelation of highly damaging internal documents tracing a pattern of industry concealment and misrepresentation of tobacco-related health information, and the adoption by adversaries of a new litigation strategy, based on aggregating claims rather than proceeding on a case-by-case basis. Nonetheless, the resulting turnabout in industry fortunes on the litigation front is far more ambiguous than appears at first blush. This ambiguity - a mixed "scorecard" of successes and defeats - offers insights that I also discuss, into the institutional strengths and weaknesses of the tort system generally as a medium for achieving broader public health goals. That discussion, in turn, leads me to some general observations about the future course of tobacco tort litigation.

Suggested Citation

Rabin, Robert L., The Third Wave of Tobacco Tort Litigation. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=283794 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.283794

Robert L. Rabin (Contact Author)

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States
650-723-3073 (Phone)
650-725-0253 (Fax)

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