Word: settlements
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...sooner did advance word of the settlement make the rounds last week than the rest of the tobacco industry raced into the North Carolina court to keep Liggett's papers under wraps. The cigarette makers claim that the documents are protected by the industry's joint defense privilege on attorney-client communications because they bear on Liggett's dealings with the other companies. However, a few files have already been distributed, and other documents are likely to leak out. "It's very hard to say 'attorney-client privilege' when half the world will be seeing them," says Henry Miller...
...Liggett settlement could not have been a complete surprise to its tobacco rivals--after all, the company had an earlier deal with five states--and they seem fully prepared to continue the case-by-case fights over liability. Indeed, the next big state suit, in Mississippi, is scheduled to go to trial in June...
...settlement struck a resonant note at the Clinton White House, which has been seeking to ban the promoting and selling of cigarettes to children. For example, the Administration strongly backs new Food and Drug Administration rules that require smokers up to the age of 27 to show photo ID cards when buying cigarettes. (The regulations bar tobacco sales to anyone under the age of 18.) Said Vice President Gore, who greeted the Liggett deal as a breath of fresh air in a smoke-filled room: "It's about time the tobacco companies told the American people the truth...
...with or without any money, the sweeping settlement is a crucial moment in three decades of public and private efforts in court to combat tobacco use. Critics first relied on research and education to counter smoking--a tactic that produced plenty of posters but not much change in consumers' habits. Legal attacks proved more successful. "We were always outgunned at first," says John Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University and founder of Action on Smoking & Health, an antitobacco group. But that nose-to-nose approach led to victories ranging from bans on smoking in public places to Liggett...
Even as some Wall Street analysts downplayed the impact of the settlement last week, the stock of several tobacco companies took a drubbing. Among them was Philip Morris, which plunged $17.50 a share to finish trading for the week at $111.50--a drop of 13.6% or $14 billion in market value. Also punished was stock of RJR Nabisco, parent company of R.J. Reynolds (Winston, Camel), which closed at $31 a share on Friday for a five-day drop...