Florida top court overturns $145 billion tobacco verdict
A top court in the US state of Florida has said that Philip Morris in the US and other cigarette makers don't have to pay a $145-billion punitive-damage award to smokers in Florida. The companies had pleaded that if they had to pay the award they would get bankrupt.

The court held that the case can't be treated as a class action, which would consider all the smokers claims in one case. Instead Florida smokers should proceed with their claims individually. Florida smokers in the case were given one year by the ruling to file individual claims.

Shares of tobacco companies Altria Group Inc. and Reynolds American Inc.'s R J Reynolds Tobacco zoomed to all-time highs on the ruling. The court was reviewing the record $145-billion verdict that a jury in Miami had passed in July 2000 against Philip Morris, an Altria subsidiary, Reynolds American Inc.'s R J Reynolds Tobacco and other US cigarette companies.
Following this a state appeals court rejected the verdict in May 2003, calling it ``grossly excessive.'' The Florida Supreme Court affirmed that appeals decision today.

The ruling removes the biggest financial risk to the tobacco industry from lawsuits over smoking-related deaths and disease. It will also allow Altria to progress with its plan to break up the company to make it more valuable to shareholders.

The Florida suit was filed in 1994 by 700,000 smokers in the state, including Howard Engle, a Miami Beach pediatrician with emphysema who represented the plaintiffs' class.
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