ClassActionBlawg.com

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