UPDATE: La Jury: Tobacco Cos Not Liable For Health Checks

(Updates throughout.)

NEW ORLEANS (AP)--A jury ruled Monday that tobacco companies shouldn't have to pay for medical screening for 1.5 million current and former Louisiana smokers, but agreed cigarette makers should foot the bill for smoking-cessation programs.

The case's defendants are Philip Morris, part of Altria Group (MO); R.J. Reynolds (RJR); Brown & Williamson, a unit of British American Tobacco (BTI); and Lorillard (X.LOR).

The finding by the state district court jury was the second time that the tobacco industry had fought back demands that it should pay for monitoring such as X-rays and routine checkups meant to detect cancer and heart disease.

In a case last year in West Virginia, attorneys for smokers prevailed in their argument that a person with a five-year, pack-a-day habit has a higher risk of disease. But the jury found that routine medical screening wasn't necessary and that concerned smokers should just quit. That suit didn't ask for programs to stop smoking.

The jury in the Louisiana case also determined that the companies hadn't manufactured a defective product but did deliberately market cigarettes to minors and tried to distort the public's knowledge about the dangers of smoking and nicotine, beginning in the mid-1950s.

Phil Wittmann, an attorney for R.J. Reynolds, called the finding "almost a total victory" for the tobacco industry.

Lead plaintiff attorney Russ Herman said he believed the decision "will save lives," noting that Big Tobacco faces the prospect of financing major cessation programs in hospitals across the state. "We feel fabulous," Herman said.

The tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, Lorillard, R.J. Reynolds and Brown & Williamson, had argued that medical monitoring for smokers isn't recommended by any major health group and that such tests could lead to unnecessary and life-threatening follow-ups, such as biopsies.

The jury's findings ended only the first phase of the trial. A second phase with the same jury will be held later to design the smoking-cessation programs.

A third phase, to be tried before the judge, will set the amount of money the tobacco industry will have to pay for the programs. No date for the next phase has been scheduled.

The suit didn't ask for individual monetary damages for smokers.

Testimony began in January but it took only two days of deliberations for the jury to finish answering the 16 pages of questions.

Getting to this point was a lengthy process. The suit was filed in 1996 and jury selection didn't begin until 2001 because of appeals in the case.

Martin Feldman, an analyst with Merrill Lynch Tobacco Research, said the ruling demonstrates the difficulty for smokers to win class-action claims against cigarette companies.

"To date there are no class actions that have survived appeal court scrutiny in the federal system and only a handful in the state court systems," Feldman said.

Updated July 28, 2003 7:59 p.m.