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Engle Trust Fund - Final Payment

We have received the third and final payment from the Engel Trust, in the amount of $716.39 on June 29th, 2009. The Law Offices of Robert J. Fenstersheib and Associates, P.A. will process and send payments out as expeditiously as possible.

Due to the June 16th deadline, we are unable to accept any inquiries via email at this time. If you have any questions, please call 1-800-LAWMEN-8 directly.

Trust Fund Now Available For Smokers

As of April 21, 2008, 600 million dollars has been set aside for the Engle Trust Fund. Registration for the trust fund will begin April 25th. So starting next week, smokers, ex-smokers and survivors of people who have died from smoking-related diseases will be able to file a claim. Registration forms must be filed no later than midnight on June 16, 2008. The funds will be distributed only to those claimants who register and file their claims before the deadline. Qualified class members should act quickly and seek experienced counsel to help them through the process. Dont miss out on this opportunity. The law offices of Robert J Fenstersheib and associates are ready to help you. To qualify for a share of the fund, individuals must have, according to the notice, suffered or presently suffer, or have died from diseases and medical conditions (listed on the notice) caused by addiction to cigarettes that contained nicotine. The disease or medical condition must have been diagnosed or first manifested itself on or before November 21, 1996.

Florida smokers to appeal $145 billion lawsuit

MIAMI (Reuters) - In a huge victory for the tobacco industry, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday refused to reinstate a $145 billion punitive damages award against major cigarette makers found liable for selling a dangerous product.

The long-awaited decision lifted one of the biggest financial clouds over tobacco companies and sent their stocks up sharply. It upheld the key part of a Florida appeals court ruling three years ago that overturned the punitive damages, one of the largest awards in a U.S. product liability case.

The high court said the award was "clearly excessive" and would "result in an unlawful crippling of the defendant companies."

But the Supreme Court also upheld key findings of the Miami trial court in the 12-year-old case known as Engle versus Liggett -- among them, that cigarette smoking causes cancer, heart disease and other ailments, and that tobacco companies marketed "defective and unreasonably dangerous" products.

The high court reinstated individual damage awards to two cancer patients -- $2.9 million to Mary Farnan and $4 million to the estate of Angie Della Vecchia, who died in 1999. But it upheld decertification of the class of plaintiffs, meaning smokers would have to sue individually, not as a group. "As numerous trial and appellate courts have held, tobacco cases cannot be treated as class actions because liability must ultimately be decided on a case by case basis," William Ohlemeyer, vice president for Philip Morris USA, said in a statement.

Individual lawsuits against tobacco companies are seen as far less likely to succeed than class actions. Joe Martyak, an official with the anti-smoking group American Legacy Foundation, said the ruling could prove a death knell for class actions against cigarette makers. "I think it's bad news for public health and it's even worse news for smokers," he said. "The ruling underscores that Big Tobacco will literally be able to litigate to death a smoker's claim for justice."

Tobacco stocks helped boost the overall U.S. share market. Shares of Altria rose as high as $79.00. Shares of Reynolds American Inc. hit a new high of $120.50. Carolina Group , the tracking stock for Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco Co., jumped to an all-time high of $55.26. Shares of Vector Group went as high as $17.11.

A Miami jury ruled in 2000 that the tobacco companies deceived smokers about the dangers of cigarettes and ordered the companies to pay $145 billion to ailing Florida smokers, estimated to number 300,000 to 700,000. The case, filed by Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle in 1994, was the first smokers' lawsuit to be certified as a class action.

Florida's Third District Court of Appeal overturned the verdict in 2003 and said Florida's settlement with the tobacco companies in a multistate lawsuit barred the awarding of punitive damages. It also decertified the class action.

The Supreme Court ruled that Florida's participation in the multistate settlement did not prevent ailing smokers from suing individually, and gave former members of the class action one year to file those claims. Engle, who is now 87 and suffers from emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said he was disappointed."Not so much for me. I'm dying anyhow. I know that. But there are people who need a little money to take care of things," he said. "I have some insurance and a little money and wonderful family, so I'm OK."

The high court ruling eliminates the largest class-action liability hanging over the tobacco industry, said Charles Norton, co-portfolio manager of Mutuals Advisors Inc.'s Vice Fund, which owns shares in most of the tobacco companies.

"With this out of the way, I believe it relieves a lot of legal risk from the group," Norton said, who expects Altria to now spin off Kraft by the first half of 2007, if not sooner.

Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the ruling was not a clear-cut victory for the industry because it upheld a finding of wrongdoing by the companies.

Smokers who sue could benefit from the high court's approval of trial court decisions that smoking causes diseases and that cigarette companies sold defective products and concealed the truth about the dangers.

"With these findings, they're 90 percent on the way to winning these cases," said Stanley Rosenblatt, the Miami lawyer who sued the giant tobacco companies.

Rosenblatt said he had not decided whether to appeal to federal courts.

Defendants in the case included Altria's Philip Morris USA unit; the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Brown & Williamson units of Reynolds American Inc.; the Lorillard Tobacco Co. unit of Loews Corp, and Vector Group's Liggett.