State v. Philip Morris USA Inc.

NEWBY, Justice.

In this case we construe the language of the National Tobacco Grower Settlement Trust to determine whether enactment of the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004 relieved defendant tobacco companies of their obligations to the Trust for 2004. We hold it did not and reverse the trial court.

I.BACKGROUND

In 1938 the federal government began implementing price supports and marketing quotas for U.S. tobacco in an effort to stabilize the domestic tobacco market. Quotas limited production and confined the cultivation of tobacco to specific tracts of land. While the federal…