The federal appeals court in New York is considering a case that could radically reshape the national legal battle over the health effects of cigarettes and could set the stage for the largest verdict ever against the tobacco industry. ...

The state anticipates a 12 percent drop in sales when the cigarette tax goes from $1 to $2 a pack next Monday, but is still expecting to raise $70 million annually in new tax revenue to help balance the budget. ...

Taxi drivers and passengers demanded in court Tuesday better measures to curb passive smoking in cabs. During the first session of a lawsuit brought before the Tokyo District Court, cabby Koichi Yasui, 71, said that 30 years of being subjected to passive smoking caused him to suffer serious heart problems, including angina pectoris. ...

The California Supreme Court for the first time has upheld a damages award in a smoking and health case, dismissing an appeal by Philip Morris USA of a $10.5-million judgment won by a lung cancer victim who was a longtime smoker of its Marlboro brand. ...

This week a Washington court will hear how the world’s biggest tobacco firms suppressed and destroyed incriminating documents. Lawyers will argue that this proves they knowingly misled smokers and caused the deaths and ill-health of millions of people. If Big Tobacco loses, the damages could top $280 billion (£156 billion). ...

The government opens arguments in its $280 billion civil racketeering lawsuit against the cigarette industry tomorrow, with the future of big tobacco in the balance. In the biggest civil racketeering case in history, the Justice Department alleges massive, coordinated fraud to conceal tobacco's deadly and addictive nature. ...

Federal prosecutors and Big Tobacco lawyers will storm into legal war Tuesday in a $280 billion megatrial and fraud case that could cripple the leading U.S. cigarette firms if they lose. Attorneys say the trial is rivaled in scope only by the Justice Department's antitrust case against Microsoft. The $280 billion figure, an estimate of suspected illegal cigarette profits over 30 years, is the largest recovery ever sought by the government in a civil case. ...

A lower court's $100 million punitive damage award against cigarette maker Philip Morris should be overturned as unconstitutional, the state Court of Appeals was told Monday. The March 2002 judgment in Multnomah County was the first such award in the nation based on claims that low-tar cigarettes are as dangerous as regular ones. ...

The U.S. government opened a massive fraud case against the tobacco industry, seeking $280 billion in alleged illegal profits for what it called "a half-century campaign of deception, half-truths and flat-out lies." The trial in U.S. District Court here is expected to last as long as six months, with each side calling as many as 100 witnesses. The case so far has cost more than $100 million over five years. ...

A California appeals court has ruled that a smoker's record-breaking $3 billion punitive damages award against Philip Morris was still "excessive" even after being reduced by a trial judge to $100 million and must be halved again. The Second District Court of Appeal, a state court in Los Angeles, gave the estate of Richard Boeken the option of accepting the lowered amount of $50 million or going to trial again, according to an opinion published on Tuesday. ...