Tyrer v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al. (In re: Light Cigarettes Marketing Sales Practices Litigation)
Plaintiffs sought class certification as purchasers of light cigarettes who were harmed by defendants' alleged misleading advertising and marketing of these products. The Court denied class certification, finding that even though the plaintiffs met the numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy requirements, plaintiffs failed to show causation and injury. In addition, the proposed class included members who lacked standing to sue in federal courts.
Tyrer v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al., 271 F.R.D. 402 (D. Me. 2010).
United States
Nov 24, 2010
United States District Court for the District of Maine
Some jurisdictions allow an individual or organization to initiate an action against another private party who is not following a particular law. For example, a person may sue a restaurant that allows smoking despite a smoke free law. If the plaintiff is claiming the violation of the law caused physical harm, this may also be a personal injury case.
An individual or organization may seek civil damages against a tobacco company based on the claim that the use of tobacco products causes disease or death. Some of these cases will relate to general tobacco products, while others will relate to specific subcategories of tobacco products--for example, light or low products, menthol or other flavored products. Additionally, there may be cases relating to exposure to secondhand smoke.
Measures to regulate the marketing on tobacco packages. This includes both bans on false, misleading, deceptive packaging, as well as required health warnings on packaging.
(See FCTC Art. 11)
Any violation of a law designed to ensure fair trade, competition, or the free flow of truthful information in the marketplace. For example, a government may require businesses to disclose detailed information about products—particularly in areas where safety or public health is an issue.
The court might consider procedural matters without touching the merits of the case. These might include: improper joinder, when third parties, such as Health NGOs or government officials, seek to become parties to the suit; lack of standing, where a plaintiff fails to meet the minimum requirements to bring suit; lack of personal jurisdiction, where the court does not have jurisdiction to rule over the defendant; or lack of subject matter jurisdiction, where the court does not have jurisdiction over the issue at suit.
Type of Tobacco Product
None
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"Despite this strong policy in favor of certification, individual issues of injury, causation, and affirmative defenses defeat the superiority of class treatment. Individual issues surrounding who qualifies as a class member and the damages each member is owed further undermine the superiority of class certification. Because cigarettes are inexpensive and purchased frequently, it is unlikely that class members will have receipts or other ways of objectively proving purchase history. See Ludke v. Philip Morris Cos. Inc., 2001 WL 1673791, at *3 (Minn. Dist.
Ct. 2001) (warning that certification of a class of cigarette purchasers would lead to fraud because of the difficulty in proving damages); Tyrer’s Supp. Resp. to Defs.’ Request for Prod. of Docs. Numbers 1, 7 and 8 for Purposes of Class Cert. Attach. 43 at 3 (Docket # 204) (the only class representative to produce a receipt and producing only one). The Plaintiffs have not proposed a plan for how the Court should deal
with these fact-intensive inquiries."
"Here, the proposed classes include class members without standing. Each state’s class effectively includes everyone who purchased light cigarettes in the respective limitations periods, and this group necessarily includes class members who knew light cigarettes were not healthier than other cigarettes, notwithstanding Defendants alleged representations to the contrary. Those class members were not injured by the Defendants’ misconduct and thus do not have standing. Furthermore, in view of the proliferation of information decrying the health risks of all cigarettes, there is no telling how many potential class members are similarly situated."
Limitations regarding the use of quotes The quotes provided here reflect statements from a specific decision. Accordingly, the International Legal Consortium (ILC) cannot guarantee that an appellate court has not reversed a lower court decision which may influence the applicability or influence of a given quote. All quotes have been selected based on the subjective evaluations undertaken by the ILC meaning that quotes provided here may not accurately or comprehensively represent a given court’s opinion or conclusion, as such quotes may have originally appeared alongside other negative opinions or accompanying facts. Further, some quotes are derived from unofficial English translations, which may alter their original meaning. We emphasize the need to review the original decision and related decisions before authoritatively relying on quotes. Using quotes provided here should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter in any jurisdiction. Please see the full limitations at https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/about.
Plaintiffs sought class certification as purchasers of light cigarettes who were harmed by defendants' alleged misleading advertising and marketing of these products. The Court denied class certification, finding that even though the plaintiffs met the numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy requirements, plaintiffs failed to show causation and injury. In addition, the proposed class included members who lacked standing to sue in federal courts.