State Supreme Court Affirms Defense Verdict in West Virginia Medical Monitoring Lawsuit

Philip Morris USA said today’s decision by the West Virginia Supreme Court affirming the defense jury verdict in the first tobacco medical monitoring class action ever tried is consistent with established law and the facts of the case.

"The jury had little trouble with the facts of the case, it took the jurors less than two days to reach a decision and the Supreme Court recognized the validity of this jury’s verdict in rejecting the plaintiffs’ appeal," said William S. Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris USA vice president and associate general counsel.

In its ruling, the state’s highest court upheld a Nov. 14, 2001 jury verdict in favor of Philip Morris USA and the nation’s other major tobacco companies in a class-action case seeking medical monitoring for most of the state’s healthy smokers and many former smokers who have not contracted a smoking-related illness.

In what has been known as the Blankenship case, the six-person jury deliberated a day and a half before returning a unanimous verdict for the manufacturers.

The Blankenship case was the first medical-monitoring case against the tobacco industry to be tried. More recently, a jury in New Orleans last July rejected medical monitoring claims in a class action case filed on behalf of Louisiana smokers. Another case in Oregon was dismissed in a September 2003 legal ruling, which the plaintiffs have appealed. No other such cases have been set for trial.

The Blankenship case was filed in 1997.

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