Tobacco.org

• Judge won't dismiss US charges against Liggett 

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a plea by tobacco maker Liggett Group to remove the company from the government's $289 billion racketeering suit against the industry.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler turned down Liggett's argument that the charges against the company should be dismissed from the case because the company broke ranks with the rest of the industry in 1997 and cooperated with government investigators. . . .

Kessler said the charges against Liggett should move ahead, noting that the government contends that Liggett still has not "come clean" because it "continues to assert that there never was a (racketeering) conspiracy and that if there was, it never participated in it."

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BUSINESS IN BRIEF: Insurers Win Against Liggett  

Liggett Group lost a court bid to force insurance companies to pay for the defense of the nation's fifth-largest cigarette maker in hundreds of tobacco-related lawsuits, as the company faces hundreds of injury claims from smokers. Liggett sued 33 insurance firms to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in defense and indemnity costs. The carriers argued that their policies include exclusion clauses that bar coverage of tobacco-related lawsuits. [This graph only]

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• Liggett Loses Bid for Insurance Firm Defense 

Liggett Group Inc. lost a bid to force insurance companies to defend it from tobacco-related litigation, as the company faces mounting legal fees and millions of dollars in pending jury awards.

President Judge Henry DuPont Ridgely of the Delaware Superior Court found in favor of the insurance companies on nine summary judgment motions in lawsuits that covered policies held from 1970 to 2000, according to court documents.

Mitchell Lathrop, a partner at New York's Luce Forward Hamilton Scripps who represents the insurers, said Liggett tried to recover from 33 insurance companies, including Affiliated FM Insurance Co., Federal Insurance Co., Chubb Corp. and Zurich Financial Services. Liggett was seeking "hundreds of millions so far" in defense and indemnity, Lathrop said. This was the first time a tobacco company sued insurers to defend it, Lathrop said.

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FOCUS - Rival says Reynolds fixes cigarette prices 

A spokesman for Reynolds, maker of Camels with 25 percent of America's cigarette market, said the Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based group's lawyers had not seen the Liggett lawsuit but denied Reynolds had violated price-fixing prohibitions.

``Our pricing policies are well within the limits of all laws and regulations that cover pricing,'' Reynolds spokesman John Singleton said.

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Liggett Files Suit Vs R.J. Reynolds 

Ligett's suit claims violations of federal antitrust laws, specifically section 1 of the Sherman Act and Sections 4 and 16 of the Clayton Act, and various state laws. It alleges that RJR ''has entered into illegal pricing arrangements with retailers that cause retailers to raise the price of non-RJR discount cigarettes to the detriment of Liggett, other tobacco manufacturers and consumers.'' . . Specifically, Liggett is challenging RJR's ``Every Day Low Pricing'' program

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Liggett Is Suing Its Insurers To Recoup Litigation Costs 

After receiving such a notice from Liggett, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. filed a lawsuit asking a Connecticut state judge to rule that Liggett's tobacco-related legal liabilities aren't covered by its policies.

Joyce Willis, a spokeswoman for the insurance company, said that tobacco-related health claims are specifically excluded from the policies it sold Liggett. "There is no coverage," Ms. Willis said. "This isn't an issue."

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Brooke Group Makes `Filings' Concerning Tobacco Unit Insurance 

``The other companies would rather not put themselves in the position that they're looking to insurance coverage to recoup product liability costs because that would imply that they lost,'' said Goldman Sachs analyst Marc Cohen. ``It would complicate their defenses and put insurers at odds with them in addition to the plaintiffs.''

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Brooke Group Issues Statement 

In response to inquiries, Brooke Group Ltd. (NYSE: BGL) today confirmed that its Liggett Group tobacco subsidiary recently made necessary filings to preserve potential claims for insurance coverage. [This graph only]

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