US: State High Court Rejects Reynolds on Engle Cut-off Date

Source from:  Tobacco Journal 03/28/2016

The Florida Supreme Court ruled against RJ Reynolds Tobacco on the issue of applying a cut-off date in Engle progeny damage suits against RJRT and other cigarette makers, The Ledger reported.

The ruling allowed an Engle suit filed on behalf of deceased smoker George Ciccone to go forward, although he was diagnosed with a smoking-related disease after the 21 Nov, 1996, cut-off date for diagnosis of a disease, the newspaper said in a website post of a story by the News Service of Florida.

The decision follows another high-court ruling against RJRT on criteria for assessing punitive damages. Engle progeny suits stem from a 2006 decision by the high court to disallow a class-action suit bearing the name of Howard Engle, but grant class-action participants the right to use findings from that case to pursue individual claims for damages. Enditem