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A federal judge has refused to decertify a class action lawsuit asking Philip Morris to provide medical screening for early signs of lung cancer to thousands of Massachusetts residents.
The 2006 federal class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Massachusetts smokers who want Philip Morris to pay for future damages for medical monitoring because of their exposure to cigarette smoke. They are asking the Court to supervise a screening program involving low-dose tomography (LDCT) that could identify and diagnose lung cancer in the early curable states. The program would cover an estimated 36,671 eligible participants, and run an estimated 28 years at a total cost of over $187 million.
A federal court certified a class of current smokers, age 50 and older, who have smoked Marlboro cigarettes for at least 20 “pack years” (the average number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day, multiplied by the number of years the person has smoked) and have not been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Philip Morris tried to decertify the class action lawsuit after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, arguing that “several intervening developments in the relevant law and facts require reconsideration of the court’s order certifying a class in this action.”
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper refused to decertify the class action lawsuit, however, ruling that “the court’s prior certification decision, which was the result of a half-decade’s worth of diligent advocacy by the parties and thorough review by the court before the instant case was transferred to this session, will stand.”
The case is Kathleen Donovan, et al. v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., Case No. 06-cv-12234-DJC, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts.
UPDATE: On Jan. 27, 2016, the trial opened with a Class of Massachusetts Marlboro smokers asking Phillip Morris to pay for yearly cancer screening.
UPDATE 2: On Feb. 10, 2016, A Massachusetts federal jury decided that cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA does not have to pay for the yearly cancer screenings of currently healthy Marlboro smokers.
UPDATE 3: On Mar. 10, 2016, Philip Morris asked the federal judge to dismiss the one remaining claim left by the jury trial.
UPDATE 4: On June 17, 2016, a Class of consumers who smoked Marlboro cigarettes asked a judge not to dismiss the only remaining claim in their Marlboro class action lawsuit that alleges the cigarettes were overly harmful and put smokers at risk of developing lung cancer.
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9 thoughts onJudge Refuses to Decertify Philip Morris Class Action
i smoke since i was 7 yrs add me
I also suffer from COPD as a result of secondhand cigarette smoke. I apologize, but truthfully, who in their right mind would think that inhaling any kind of smoke would be good for their lungs? I grew up in the 60’s and the anti-smoking campaign was in full swing. To this day, smokers become beligerent when you tell them they can’t smoke in your home or on the premises, including hotel rooms and restaurants. I chose not to smoke because my mother was a heavy smoker and all of her children knew it was a smelly, nasty habit. We hated inhaling the smoke, I often got sore throats and infections from it, she smoked while pregnant and we were small babies… the list of problems resulting from her smoking is a mile long. We were taught in elementary school the result of smoking, lung cancer and heart attacks.
My father, a smoker, died of a heart attack at the age of 42. True to form, my mother died an agonizing death from emphysema. Watching her die made me very angry. I am also very angry because I am sick as well. I don’t think you have to be told something is bad for you before you realize it isn’t good using your own common sense. I do blame cigarette companies for adding the addictive poisons which only kill you that much faster. But in the end, everyone has a choice whether to smoke or not. I chose not to and suffer anyway. My situation makes it extremely difficult for me to feel any sympathy for a smoker. They have done it to themselves AND the people around them. Unless your mother passed away in the 50’s, as a nurse she knew full well what cigarettes were capable of. I have no sympathy for any smoker. No one has any sympathy for my plight…
UPDATE 4: On June 17, 2016, a Class of consumers who smoked Marlboro cigarettes asked a judge not to dismiss the only remaining claim in their Marlboro class action lawsuit that alleges the cigarettes were overly harmful and put smokers at risk of developing lung cancer.
UPDATE 3: On Mar. 10, 2016, Philip Morris asked the federal judge to dismiss the one remaining claim left by the jury trial.
UPDATE 2: On Feb. 10, 2016, A Massachusetts federal jury decided that cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA does not have to pay for the yearly cancer screenings of currently healthy Marlboro smokers.
I, would like to be included in this class-action. Thank you.
UPDATE: On Jan. 27, 2016, the trial opened with a Class of Massachusetts Marlboro smokers asking Phillip Morris to pay for yearly cancer screening.
My older sister is dying from the same thing that killed my mother, emphysema. My grandfather died from cigarettes, my mother died from cigarettes, I’m ill from cigarettes, and now my sister has just been diagnosed with emphysema and put on oxygen in Feb. 2015. She started smoking in the mid 60’s, before the dangers of smoking was publicized or the addictive nature was known. In fact were even encouraged to smoke with the glamorizing of cigarettes from various ads on TV and billboards(EG-“I’d walk a mile for a Camel”, or “You’ve come a long way baby”- (Virginia Slims) My mother was a religious woman who raised 7 children on her own, and I know that she would never have started smoking if she knew the physical harm it would cause to herself, not to mention the influence on her children smoking and the dangers of second hand smoke to her children. Seeing my mom smoke, and the ads that encouraged us, led to my sister’s years of cigarette addiction. When my mother was about 56 years old, she started wheezing so she went to the doctor. She was told she had a chest cold. She continued smoking. After a while, it got worse and she started having a hard time breathing and started coughing up flem. She was admitted into the hospital and diagnosed with emphysema. She had to be put on oxygen which she remained on for the rest of her life. She was no longer active and lost her will to live. Every time I looked at her I could see the pain and the embarrassment in her eyes as well from having that oxygen tube in her nose. She felt so guilty. Now the same thing is happening to my sister. She can’t even walk to the car without getting dizzy from the lack of oxygen and gasping for air. She got dizzy and fell and broke her hip at the beginning of Feb.2015. In the hospital they put a nicotine patch on her to help with the cravings and put her on Oxygen. She is still in the hospital. That is three generations of my family that has been effected by cigarettes, which all started before any danger warnings were put on the labels. To make matters worse, I found out they started adding more addictive chemicals to their cigarettes making it harder to quit. How can anyone knowingly sell a product so dangerous, and purposefully add more addictive chemicals to make it harder for people to quit smoking, just to fill their own pockets with money earned from our pain and suffering? That is horrendous. Now my sister is dying from the same thing that killed my mother and all because of cigarettes. My sister worked in a disabled thrift store all of her life, and my mother was a nurse. Neither did drugs or alcohol. How can you claim that either were stupid. You are stupid for saying that.
What can I do now that I have COPD ? I quit smoking in 2007 a month later I found out that I have COPD . Now I had smoked for fourty years avg. 2 packs per day. Can tabcco companies be sued now. Thanks in advance George