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Casino Workers Denied Class-Action Status in Smoking Case6 July 2001LAS VEGAS — As reported by the Associated Press: "A federal judge has denied class-action status to Nevada casino dealers and others who wanted tobacco companies to pay for medical exams to detect smoking-related illnesses. "A plaintiffs' lawyer said the decision could kill cases in Nevada aimed at proving that tobacco companies lied about the adverse health effects of breathing secondhand smoke. "…U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro in Las Vegas ruled that differences in the four Nevada cases were too great to lump them together for trial. One involved smokers. The other three were filed on behalf of nonsmoking casino workers exposed to secondhand smoke. "…[Robert Gerard, a Las Vegas and San Diego lawyer representing two of the plaintiffs] called Pro's ruling "a double loss for casino workers." "…Gerard said a class-action case could represent 100,000 nonsmoking casino workers in Nevada and many times that number of individual smokers. Nevada has the highest per capita number of smoking adults in the nation…" |