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Court denies union chance to collectively sue tobacco 

The decision by US District Judge George O'Toole said the Massachusetts Laborer's Health & Welfare Fund cannot sue the tobacco industry on behalf of all its members who smoked and got sick. Instead, O'Toole said the union fund must try the cases of individual members who smoked.

O'Toole broke some ground in Massachusetts by finding that the liability of the tobacco industry should not be determined solely by whether it told the public how much human health may be harmed by smoking.

Instead, O'Toole found that the information available to smokers must be considered in total, given how much is known generally about the hazards of tobacco.

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