State v. Philip Morris, Inc.

I. Introduction

This appeal arises from a Master Settlement Agreement (“MSA”) between appellees, who are numerous cigarette manufacturers (the “Participating Manufacturers” or “PMs”), 1 and appellant, the State of Maryland (“Maryland”), along with 51 other states and territories (collectively, the “Settling States”). Specifically, it involves the multi-state arbitration of an MSA dispute over the “Non-Participating Manufacturer Adjustment” (“NPM Adjustment”)—a potential reduction to the annual payment that the PMs make to the Settling States under the MSA, which is allocated among those states…