Judge Orders Release of Liggett Papers

A Mississippi judge ruled that internal documents from Brooke Group Ltd.’s Liggett Group could be turned over to plaintiffs in a $650-million lawsuit against the U.S. tobacco industry over secondhand smoke. Jones County Circuit Judge Billy Joe Landrum said 11 documents from Liggett could be seen by lawyers for the family of a barber, a nonsmoker, who died of cancer in 1994 at age 60. The judge stayed his order until Friday afternoon to give tobacco industry attorneys time to lodge an appeal with the Mississippi Supreme Court. Landrum is the first judge to review the documents since last week’s settlement between Liggett and 22 state attorneys general. Separately, a Florida judge ordered Liggett to immediately deliver documents for possible use in that state’s suit.