Flood of Florida Lawsuits Fail to Flatten Big Tobacco

Tobacco companies face about 8,000 lawsuits in Florida after a 2006 decision by the Florida Supreme Court opened the floodgates. (See “Tobacco Lawsuits Booming in Florida.”)

Basically, the state Supreme Court said that findings made in a 1994 class action lawsuit named after one of the plaintiffs, Howard Engle, would apply to subsequent cases filed before a 2008 deadline.

The findings are a plaintiff’s dream. Among other things, they state that “tobacco companies sold cigarettes that were ’defective’ and ’unreasonably dangerous’ and concealed the dangers of smoking,” according to a Wall Street Journal blog post Oct. 22.

But even though plaintiffs have won 19 of the last 26 cases, tobacco companies have won the most recent five.

Does Big Tobacco’s recent winning streak mean it’s learning how to fight the so-called Engle cases, or was it just the luck of the draw?

Time will tell: after all, there’s roughly 7,974 cases to go.