The Florida Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs in cases against the tobacco industry could use the damning conclusions of a Miami jury in future cases, but three federal judges in Florida have defied that ruling, Law.com reported Sept. 10.

The state's highest court last year dismissed a class-action lawsuit against the industry but said that thousands of individual plaintiffs could use the jury's conclusion that the industry was liable for tobacco-related illnesses in their own cases. However, U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro in Miami allowed the question of liability to come back into play in a case against the industry, and  U.S. District Judge Howard Schlesinger in Jacksonville went further, explicitly rejecting the jury's findings. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday in Tampa then adopted Schlesinger's finding that the state was depriving the industry of due process.

"This court will not sacrifice the fundamental right of due process upon the altars of expediency, thrift and 'pragmatism,'" wrote Schlesinger, who referred his ruling to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, anticipating a challenge.

"The effect of it would be that a federal judge would be overturning the ruling of a state supreme court," said Edward Sweda Jr., senior attorney for the Tobacco Liability Project at Northeastern University.

About 8,000 plaintiffs met a January deadline to file suit against the tobacco industry after the Florida Supreme Court broke up the Engle v. Liggett class-action lawsuit. About 4,000 cases are now in federal court: 600 cases were filed there, and the tobacco industry succeeded in shifting the other 3,400 from state to federal court.

Some sought to downplay the impact of the federal judges' actions. "The Florida Supreme Court is the apex judicial system in the state of Florida, and its rulings are binding," said attorney Miles McGrane, who recently won a $24.8 million judgment last against the tobacco industry. "This is typical of the tobacco industry. If they don't like what they get, they find some other court. I don't think the state judges are going to fall for it."

Others predicted that the issue could ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.