"California Supreme Court revives class-action suit against tobacco firms"

The Los Angeles Times blog, LA Now, already has a report on this morning's Tobacco opinion.  An excerpt:

The California Supreme Court decided 4-3 today that consumers can file class-action lawsuits against the tobacco industry and other businesses under a law voters limited in 2004, reversing a trend in the lower courts.

The decision, written by Justice Carlos R. Moreno, revived a class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry that lower courts dismissed. ....

The ruling was the state high court’s most significant interpretation of Proposition 64, the 2004 initiative that limited suits under a major consumer law to people who claimed they had lost money or property as a result of a company’s wrongdoing.

By interpreting this so-called “standing” requirement flexibly, the court cleared the way for consumer class actions that many lower courts have been throwing out.

See the blog post immediately below for more on the opinion.

Comments

[Andy Hoffman]

Thanks for covering this important story. For those of us who have been following the saga of Prop. 64 from its inception, the high court's ruling was a very welcome one indeed. http://tinyurl.com/qenqgv

As the majority stated, to have ruled otherwise would have been tantamount to ending consumers' right to mount class-action lawsuits in California.