LOUISVILLE, Ky., Dec. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Brown & Williamson Tobacco
Corporation today issued the following:

    A Washington, D.C. federal court judge today rejected efforts by the
Republic of Guatemala to hold tobacco companies liable for reimbursement of
alleged smoking-related health care costs.
    The Guatemala litigation is the first of a number of pending foreign
lawsuits against tobacco companies to be decided by U.S. courts.
    Refusing to allow Guatemala's lawsuit to go to trial, U.S. District Judge
Paul Friedman held that U.S. laws bar third parties, like foreign governments,
from recouping costs on behalf of individuals allegedly injured by smoking.
    In his ruling, Judge Friedman said that the "plaintiff's claims are simply
too remote, contingent, derivative and indirect to survive."
    The court's decision to disallow the lawsuit is considered key to future
court actions in related lawsuits filed by other foreign governments against
tobacco companies.  In addition to Guatemala's lawsuit, the Washington, D.C.
federal court has before it lawsuits brought by the governments of Bolivia,
Venezuela, Ukraine, and Nicaragua.  Claims against tobacco companies filed by
Panama, and the Brazilian State of Rio de Janeiro are pending in state courts.
    "The dismissal of Guatemala's lawsuit sends a strong message to foreign
governments and enterprising plaintiffs' attorneys that litigation mania in
the United States has gone far enough," said Ken Bass, an attorney
representing Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation.
    "The foreign lawsuits were doomed from the beginning, based on established
U.S. law and reaffirmation of those laws by numerous courts across the
country," Bass said.
    Guatemala's claims were patterned after similarly-framed unsuccessful
lawsuits brought by numerous union health funds that claimed they were
entitled to recover payments made to members for alleged smoking related
illnesses.  To date, all of those so-called "medical cost recoupment" lawsuits
reviewed by the courts -- both at the lower and appellate levels -- have been
decided in favor of tobacco industry defendants.
    In dismissing the litigation, the courts have cited established law that
prohibits third parties, like foreign governments, from recovering health-
related payments because any alleged damages to the third parties are "too
remote" to the plaintiffs and disregard any specific injuries allegedly
suffered by an individual.
    The courts also have applied the "remoteness" principle to claims that the
third parties were injured by alleged wrongful conduct of tobacco companies.
Guatemala, like the union health care funds, was claiming damages based on
U.S. racketeering and anti-trust laws.
    Brown & Williamson said that had the case gone forward, an extensive
discovery review of Guatemalan government records would have shown that
the Republic could not have incurred damages because of the substantial
financial benefits the country derives from taxes on lawful cigarette
commerce.
    Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation is headquartered in Louisville, Ky.
The company's major brands include KOOL, LUCKY STRIKE, CARLTON, CAPRI, GPC,
MISTY and VICEROY.

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