MORE JUMP ON BANDWAGON FOR SUITS AGAINST TOBACCO

WASHINGTON -- When Guatemala's Attorney General Aciscio Valladares Molina
announced his nation's lawsuit against Big Tobacco here, his speech in
Spanish was peppered with a distinctly American noun: ``Minnesota.''

The settlement of Minnesota's lawsuit against the tobacco industry last
week is prelude to a fresh round of lawsuits -- lawsuits backed with
voluminous evidence -- that will continue regardless of what happens in
Congress in coming weeks.

Guatemala filed on Tuesday, seeking about $800 million in smoking-related
health costs. Already attorneys from Britain, Australia, Canada and Israel
have sought guidance from Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III.

``More unions, hospitals, they'll all jump on the bandwagon,'' said Marc
Galanter, a University of Wisconsin law professor who follows the industry.

The 33 million pages of internal documents wrested from the tobacco
industry during its lengthy court battle with Minnesota have given trial
lawyers, like those representing Guatemala, a virtual blueprint on how to
attack the industry.

Good work

``We've already looked at a lot of the documentation produced in
Minnesota,'' said George Fleming, member of a Houston law firm and the lead
attorney for Guatemala. ``We rely on a lot of it. They did some good
work.''

The firm produced a slick video that supplements their case with images of
poor Guatemalan children smoking and harried doctors treating lung cancer
patients. The narrator states that the 150,000 people that died during
Guatemala's brutal 30-year civil war ``pales in comparison'' to the numbers
that have died smoking.

``We want those companies to know that even if they resolve their problems
in the U.S., they cannot dump their product on the rest of the world,''
said Fleming, Guatemala's lead attorney.

Guatemala, which has a treaty with the United States allowing access to one
another's court systems, now takes its place at the back of a lengthy
queue. There are more than three dozen states with trials against the
industry pending. Norwood ``Woody'' Wilner, the only lawyer that has beaten
the tobacco industry in court, began yet another trial on behalf of a
deceased smoker's family in Florida on Monday. More than 20 other private
cases are slated to go to trial this year.

Then there are the three massive federal cases filed by 35 Blue Cross-Blue
Shield plans last month. Several unions have ongoing cases. Many private
health plans have expressed an interest in suing the tobacco industry.
Scores of counties and cities are considering litigation.

The Minnesota case has given this parade of plaintiffs an electrifying jolt
of optimism. In addition to providing the extensive tobacco document trail,
Minnesota's efforts validated a legal theory that seemingly pierces the
industry's once-thick armor.

Mississippi's Attorney General Mike Moore introduced the theory in 1994,
with help from a private attorney from Mississippi, Dick Scruggs. They sued
the major tobacco companies to recoup the state's Medicaid costs for
treating ill smokers. Traditionally individual smokers would sue the
industry and juries would send them packing. Juries consistently held that
smokers choose to smoke and should pay for the consequences.

But Moore's case was different because the state was the plaintiff and the
state did not choose to smoke, but was stuck with the health care bills
anyway.

First three settled

At the time, the theory was seen to be on shaky legal grounds. Although
most other attorneys general filed similar suits, the first three states in
line -- Mississippi, Florida, and Texas -- settled with the industry, in
part because they were unsure about whether Moore's legal theory would fly
with juries.

Minnesota bucked the trend and went to trial. The industry's $6.1 billion
settlement just hours before the case was to go to the jury was interpreted
by many lawyers as an admission of vulnerability by the industry and proof
that a case using Moore's theory can be won.

``Minnesota would've gotten $4 billion in the attorneys general deal and
they got $6 billion by settling their trial. That's a pretty dramatic
increase,'' said Robert Kline, a Northeastern University law professor who
advises those taking on tobacco. ``The only reason the industry settled in
that way is that they thought they would lose even more.''

The industry leaders have already offset all the costs of settling the
state lawsuits. On Monday they raised the price of a pack by 5 cents,
which cover their costs in Minnesota and actually increase their per-pack
profits by one cent, said analysts.

Kline said he expected more lawsuits, including class-action cases filed by
restaurant workers exposed to second-hand smoke. He said his office has
heard from many clients expressing a desire to move forward with their
cases.

Encouraging case

``The Minnesota case is extremely encouraging to other litigants,'' he said.

The legal activity may make the industry rethink its opposition to the
leading bill of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which it has previously blasted.
McCain's bill would give the companies a $6.5 billion annual cap on lawsuit
damage payments. Although the industry has complained the protection is too
limited, the cap would enable the companies to predict what their yearly
legal costs would be, vital to any business.

The tobacco industry has refused to talk with the Guatemalan government and
dismissed the case as grandstanding by a Guatemalan attorney general that
has designs on his nation's presidency.

The lawsuit comes at a time it is increasingly clear that the tobacco
industry's future lies in the developing world. Philip Morris announced
robust growth in global tobacco sales last month at its annual stockholders
meeting, driven particularly by former Communist bloc nations and Latin
America.

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)