Judge won’t certify class in Marlboro medical mon

Nevertheless, he allowed Xavier and Franklin to proceed individually with their claims for strict liability design defect and negligent design and testing.
"The question thus would come down to the state of mind of the putative class member, and it would be easy to fade in or out of the class, depending on the outcome cartons of marlboro," he explained.
The plaintiffs sought medical monitoring through low-dose CT chest scans to be provided by Philip Morris through a court-supervised screening program. Such scans can detect lung cancer earlier than X-rays.
The proposed class action said the tobacco giant should fund such a program because its cigarettes deliver excessive levels of carcinogens, and the company had the ability to design and manufacture a safer cigarette.
May 9 (Westlaw Journals) - A California federal judge has denied class certification in a lawsuit seeking a Philip Morris-funded medical monitoring program for long-term smokers of its Marlboro-brand cigarettes.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California said it is impossible to ascertain whether class members had 20-pack-year histories of smoking the company's Marlboro cigarettes.
"There is no good way to identify such individuals wholesale dr. dre headphones," he added.
A pack year is calculated by multiplying the number of packs of cigarettes a person has smoked per day by the number of years the person has smoked.
Judge Alsup rejected the plaintiffs' argument that class membership could be determined by other methods such as using records from Philip Morris' customer loyalty program or through class member affidavits.
"A smoker's rate of cigarette consumption and cigarette brand of choice are liable to change over time, and we cannot expect smokers to recall the cumulative total of Marlboro packs they have smoked Cigarettes defective, family says in death lawsuit," the judge said.
Such a determination would require each class member to subjectively estimate his or her smoking history, the judge said.
Judge Alsup refused to grant class certification, finding the class definition fails "to describe a group of people whose membership can be ascertained in a reliable manner." He said the requirement that class members have smoked Marlboro cigarettes for a minimum of 20-pack years "nullifies" their bid for class certification.
Plaintiffs Burt Xavier and James Franklin filed suit on behalf of asymptomatic people with 20-pack-year histories of smoking Marlboro cigarettes dr dre headphone, as well as recent quitters. The suit is nearly identical to others being litigated in different states by the same group of attorneys.