The American Legacy Foundation violated the 1998 nationwide tobacco settlement by producing antismoking ads that attacked tobacco companies and executives, Lorillard Tobacco Company told the Delaware Supreme Court.

The New York Times reported April 27 that the tobacco company was appealing a lower court's dismissal of its lawsuit against Legacy. The Delaware Chancery Court held that the Legacy ads were both truthful and effective in preventing youth tobacco use.

Lorillard contends that the ads vilify and personally attack the industry, which would be a violation of the agreement that included major funding for Legacy. In the earlier decision, Vice Chancellor Stephen P. Lamb of the Delaware Chancery Court said that disparagement was not vilification, and that the ads describing tobacco company employees as "liars, greedy executives or authors of embarrassing documents" did not amount to "cruel slander" or "vitriolic attacks."

Lamb also said that the ads were not personal in nature because they did not mention individuals, just the industry in general.

Lorillard lawyer Jim Phillips called Lamb's definitions of the contract terms "unprecedented and unworkable."

At least one Supreme Court justice faulted the tobacco company for failing to fully define the contract terms in the original agreement. But another challenged Legacy's defense by saying, "Just because methodology works, doesn't ipso facto mean it's O.K."