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Editor: C. Calvin Warriner
Profession: Cigarette & Tobacco Attorney

Category: Tobacco News

A federal judge in North Carolina dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group representing senior citizens to recoup Medicare expenditures for smoking related illness.

The group seeking 60 billion dollars in damages was seeking to enforce Medicare's right to reimbursement for medical expenses incurred by North Carolina Medicare recipents. As part of his justification Judge Stearns cited a Florida case that likewise dismissed private citizens rights to enfore Medicare law.

In his order filed Monday, Stearns said the case was a reprise of claims brought by the federal government in the 1990s against tobacco companies.

"These efforts by the government came largely to naught, with most courts rejecting the government's various theories of tobacco company liability," he wrote.

Stearns also pointed to a similar case in Florida, in which an appeals court said the plaintiff must prove a defendant's responsibility to pay Medicare costs before trying to recover them under the Medicare as Secondary Payer law.