Attorneys for the five biggest cigarette companies filed a request to transfer the case to federal court. The filing was based on federal questions raised in a motion filed by the Southeastern Iron Workers Union healthcare plan.

The union said some of its members were part of the Florida class-action lawsuit and should be allowed to join the case. Similar motions filed with Florida trial judge, Circuit Judge Robert Kaye, were rejected.

Stanley Rosenblatt, the attorney for the smokers in the Florida case, said he would file a motion to send the case back to state court. "They try everything, and they stop at nothing to achieve their devious ends. They don't play fair," Rosenblatt said. "We've got to fight."

The federal case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages.

In addition, the tobacco industry filed a motion challenging the $145 billion verdict, thus setting the groundwork for an appeal in state courts.

The motion proposes that Kaye either reduce the punitive award, erase the three verdicts in the case, order a new trial, or kill the case entirely by decertifying it as a class-action covering 300,000 to 700,000 sick Florida smokers.

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