Smoking case going back to state court

St. Paul, Minn. — A federal appeals court has returned a tobacco case involving light cigarettes back to the Minnesota court system. The move is a setback for R.J. Reynolds since Minnesota has tough consumer protection laws. The case is one of many lawsuits across the United States challenging tobacco companies' marketing of so-called light cigarettes.

Michael Dahl and David Scott Huber sued R.J. Reynolds seeking damages and restitution for R.J. Reynolds' "unfair business practices and/or deceptive and unlawful conduct in connection with the manufacture, distribution, promotion, marketing, and sale" of its light cigarettes.

The lawsuit claims the tobacco company: (1) designed its light cigarettes to register lower levels of tar and nicotine than what would actually be ingested by consumers, (2) intentionally misrepresented to consumers that its light cigarettes misrepresented that its light cigarettes were healthy alternatives to other cigarettes, and (4) continued to sell light cigarettes as a healthy alternative knowing this to be false.

R.J. Reynolds wanted a federal court to try the case. But the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Reynolds missed a 30-day deadline to do so. The case goes back to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.