Gigantic Class Action Lawsuit at Death’s Door

Earlier, I wrote about the gigantic class action lawsuit in Schwab v. Philip Morris, in which the tobacco companies are being sued for selling “light” cigarettes.

That suit includes 30 million smokers as members of its class of plaintiffs. I wrote about how it could be used to funnel billions of dollars to left-wing groups (rather than those who smoked light cigarettes) under a radical concept known as “fluid recovery.” I also explained why it was an abuse of discretion for the trial judge, Jack Weinstein, to certify the case as a class action.

Now, Anthony Sebok writes that an appeals court will overturn Judge Weinstein’s decision in the case, whose name has changed to McLaughlin v. American Tobacco.

Although Sebok is sympathetic to the plaintiffs, he notes that judges on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals were openly quite skeptical of Judge Weinstein’s decision to certify the case as a class action, and that prior court rulings did not justify treating the case as a class action.