EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — A lawsuit that led to a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris USA before it was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court has been revived by a lower court.
The unanimous ruling Thursday by the three-judge panel of the Mount Vernon based 5th District Appellate Court cleared the way for the plaintiffs to argue that a favorable 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case may be applied to reinstate the questioned Madison County one involving Philip Morris’ marketing of “light” cigarettes.
In 2003, now-retired Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron found that Philip Morris misled customers about “light” and “low tar” cigarettes and broke state law by marketing them as safer. The state’s Supreme Court overturned that verdict in 2005.
The U.S. Supreme Court in late 2006 let that ruling stand, and Byron dismissed the case the next month. But in December 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled in a lawsuit on behalf of three Maine residents that smokers may use state consumer protection laws to sue cigarette makers for the way they promote “light” and “low tar” brands.
Counting that decision as new evidence, the attorney behind the Illinois lawsuit, Stephen Tillery, again approached the appellate court in hopes of reopening his firm’s class-action lawsuit involving 1.1 million people who bought “light” cigarettes in Illinois.
Philip Morris, which can appeal Thursday’s order to the state’s high court, said Saturday in a statement that it would continue to fight.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/27/2011