KEEP ANTI-TOBACCO SUIT ALIVE, THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT URGES

Health: U.S. Asks That Companies' Motion To Dismiss The Suit, Filed Last
Year, Be Denied.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department urged a federal judge Friday to
keep its massive lawsuit against the tobacco industry alive because
the cigarette companies "pose a continuing threat to the health and
well-being of the American public."

In several documents filed with U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler,
the department argued that the companies made "multiple legal errors"
in their December motions to dismiss the lawsuit.

The government accuses cigarette makers of conspiring for 45-years to
mislead the public about the dangers of smoking and seeks to recover
billion of dollars spent by Medicare and other federal health programs
to treat smoking-induced illnesses.

Industry lawyers contended that no court had ever recognized the
government's right to recover payments it made under the Medicare
health program. But the Justice Department said, "That argument asks
the court to ignore the plain statutory language of the Medical Care
Recovery Act ... (which) authorizes the United States to recover all
medical costs that it is 'authorized or required by law to furnish or
pay for.'"

To the industry's complaint that the government had never before
brought such a case, the Justice Department replied, "What makes this
suit unique is the conduct of these corporations, which for decades
have deliberately and successfully addicted millions of citizens to a
product that defendants have long known causes suffering and death.
... Defendants cannot rely on the sheer massiveness of their
wrongdoing to defeat this suit."

Last year, the industry reached settlements with all 50 states. It
agreed to pay states $246 billion to settle lawsuits they filed to
recover the cost of treating sick smokers in the Medicaid program,
which serves poor and disabled Americans.

Posted By: Allan Wilkinson