Insolia v. Philip Morris, Inc.

OPINION AND ORDER No. 1

CRABB, District Judge.

This is a eivil action for declaratory and monetary relief brought by a group of individuals on behalf of a proposed class of Wisconsin residents, all of whom began smoking before 1964, consumed at least one package of cigarettes a day for twenty years and have been diagnosed with lung cancer. The defendants are the leading manufacturers of tobacco products in this country as well as two industry trade groups, the Council for Tobacco Research and the Tobacco Institute. One of these defendants, the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, is the…