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Action on Smoking and Health
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U.S. Wins on 2 of 3 Motions in $280 Billion Racketeering Case [07/15-6]
Excerpts from: U.S. wins on two of three motions in tobacco case
Reuters [07/15/04]
The federal judge overseeing a $280 billion U.S. racketeering suit against the
tobacco industry on Thursday discarded two of the industry's legal arguments in
pretrial maneuvering.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler granted the government's motion to strike the companies' argument that the U.S. needed to show that the firms took part in "operation or management" of a racketeering conspiracy in order to prevail.
Kessler also concluded that the government had demonstrated that the racketeering enterprise it alleges is "separate and distinct" from the tobacco companies themselves -- a legal requirement that the companies had argued the U.S. Justice Department had failed to fulfill.
However, Kessler denied a third motion by the government that the companies should automatically be held liable if the U.S. could prove that they "aided and abetted" a racketeering conspiracy.
The judge said that issue should be settled after facts are presented at trial, which is slated to begin Sept. 13.
Filed by the Clinton administration in 1999, the government lawsuit accuses tobacco companies of deliberately misleading the public about the risks of smoking in a conspiracy going back to the 1950s. It is seeking $280 billion in redress.
click here to view Memorandum Opinion issued July 15, 2004 by Judge Gladys Kessler
click here to view Order issued July 15, 2004 by Judge Gladys Kessler
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