The U.S. Supreme Court turned down one appeal in a mass tort lawsuit today, but will hear oral arguments in another on Wednesday.The Court denied a Petition for Writ of Certiorari filed by several tobacco companies in hundreds of consolidated product liability and fraudulent concealment cases brought by individual smokers in West Virginia. The defendants sought review of the constitutionality of a trial plan that utilized a procedural vehicle known as “reverse bifurcation,” in which punitive damages issues are tried on a collective basis before any individual liability issues are determined. The defendants’ claimed that Supreme Court review was necessary because the West Virginia courts make the use of “reverse bifurcation” a common practice in mass tort litigation. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/25/AR2008022501016.htmlThe Court will hear arguments Wednesday on a class action arising out of the 1986 Exxon Valdez oil spill. At issue is whether the company should be required to pay all or part of a $2.5 billion punitive damages award handed down by a federal jury in Alaska in 1994 (the original verdict was for $5 billion but was later reduced to $2.5 billion by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals). The Anchorage Daily News has a good summary of the issues before the Court as well as a timeline of events and other related information. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/326234.html
Supreme Court Considers Issues in Mass Action Lawsuits
March 28, 2008 by Paul Karlsgodt
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[...] Action Watch was issued in late March 2008 and includes articles on seven topics including “reverse bifurcation“, Cy Pres settlements, FACTA truncation, scheme liability, and class action tolling. For [...]
[...] West Virginia, home of the novel “reverse-bifurcation” procedure (see earlier entries here and here) in mass tort litigation, ranks [...]
[...] event, like an airplane crash, toxic leak, or oil spill. A well-known example is the Exxon Valdez oil spill case. When numerous mass actions against the same defendant or group of defendants are filed in the [...]