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Contact: (617) 373-2026 e-mail to media @ tplp.org
September 16, 2004 TIMELINE IN U.S. V. PHILIP MORRIS, INC., ET AL.
9/4/04 Judge Kessler denies tobacco industry motion to delay the trial until 1/10/05.
8/30/04 Judge Kessler grants Government’s emergency motion to have the depositions of Messrs. Gulson and Welch, who are in Australia, conducted by teleconference and/or video conference.
8/10/04 Judge Kessler denied tobacco industry motion to exclude some disputed documents from evidence at trial.
7/21/04 Judge Kessler fines Philip Morris $2.75 million for deleting certain e-mails.
7/18/04 Judge Kessler denies tobacco industry motion for summary judgment as to claims of nicotine manipulation and addiction.
7/15/04 U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia agrees to hear the tobacco industry’s challenge of Judge Kessler’s 5/24/04 ruling re. disgorgement claim.
7/15/04 Judge Kessler grants Government motion to strike tobacco industry defense that the Government needs to show that the companies took part in “operation or management” of a racketeering conspiracy.
7/7/04 Judge Kessler denies tobacco industry motion that it was shielded from RICO charges by the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.
7/2/04 Government outlines its blueprint of evidence.
6/25/04 Judge Kessler allows the tobacco industry to appeal her 5/24/04 ruling on the disgorgement claim.
6/1/04 Judge Kessler orders BAT to turn over the Foyle memo.
5/28/04 Judge Kessler denies BAT’s motion to get itself out of the lawsuit.
5/24/04 Judge Kessler rules that the Government can seek a $280 billion claim for disgorgement of tobacco industry profits.
5/7/04 Judge Kessler denies tobacco industry motion to dismiss the Government’s lawsuit on the grounds that there was no chance that the tobacco industry would commit future wrongdoing.
5/6/04 Judge Kessler denies the Government’s motion for summary judgment that the tobacco companies caused the mail and wire transactions underlying 145 racketeering acts.
4/7/04 Judge Kessler allows Government motion to bar a BAT lawyer, Neil Koslowe, from representing BAT because he had previously worked for the Department of Justice.
4/7/04 Judge Kessler denies Liggett Group’s motion to get out of the lawsuit on the grounds that it had broken ranks from the other tobacco companies in 1997.
3/17/04 Judge Kessler denies the tobacco companies’ motion to dismiss the Government’s RICO lawsuit on the grounds that the lawsuit violated the U.S. Constitution’s seaparation of legislative and executive powers.
3/10/04 Judge Kessler rules that the Government may seek to force the tobacco companies to give up profits earned before 1970.
2/2/4/04 Judge Kessler denies the tobacco industry’s motion to dismiss the Government’s claims that the companies advertised and prmoted their products to children.
2/2/04 Judge Kessler allows a tobacco industry motion to limit the number of counts of racketeering that the Government can claim.
1/23/04 Judge Kessler denies a tobacco industry motion to dismiss the Government’s lawsuit on the grounds that the Government knew about smoking’s dangers for years and did little or nothing about it.
5/23/03 Judge Kessler denies the tobacco industry’s motion to dismiss claims regarding advertising, fraud and deception on the grounds that the Federal Trade Commission had jurisdiction over these issues.
3/18/03 The Government files over 1400 pages supporting its claim for $289 billion.
3/11/02 The Government specifies proposed remedies.
11/01 The Government files hundreds of pages of written testimony from its expert witnesses.
9/28/00 - Judge Kessler dismissed the Government’s claims dealing with the Medical Care Recovery Act and the Medicare Secondary Payer provisions.
9/22/99. The Government files its lawsuit against the major tobacco companies.
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