Case Notes

On April 6, Florida's Supreme Court announced in R.J. Reynolds v. Marotta, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 744, that a lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. may go forward, rejecting the cigarette manufacturer's argument that federal preemption foreclosed the right of an injured smoker and his representatives to bring state-law tort claims against it for marketing cigarettes. The case is significant because in its 2006 decision in Engle v. Liggett Group, Inc. (Engle III), 945 So. 2d 1246 (Fla. 2006), Florida's Supreme Court had decertified a statewide class that had already litigated their case against a number of cigarette manufacturers. However, the court allowed the class members to bring suit individually, giving them several procedural advantages in the process, including the right to have treated as res judicata many findings of fault against the cigarette manufacturers. The outcomes of these individual plaintiffs' claims impact others still to come — and when it comes to these so-called “Engle progeny” cases, there are thousands still to come.