COUNTY SCRAMBLES TO GET PIECE OF TOBACCO SETTLEMENT PIE.Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer In the race to get a piece of the $368.5 billion settlement between 40 states and tobacco companies, lawyers for Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County admit that right now they may be at a disadvantage. While the proposed settlement allows for states to collect, pending the approval of Congress, no specific provisions have been made for a handful of cities and counties nationwide that also sued the tobacco companies for reimbursement Reimbursement Payment made to someone for out-of-pocket expenses has incurred. of smoking-related public health-care costs. Besides those 40 states, Los Angeles County, Cook County in Illinois Illinois, river, United States Illinois, river, 273 mi (439 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, NE Ill., and flowing SW to the Mississippi at Grafton, Ill. It is an important commercial and recreational waterway. , the city and county of San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden and New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. have pending lawsuits against tobacco companies. ``The state attorney general's offices were at the table negotiating the settlement. We were not,'' said Steve Carnevale, a lawyer for the County Counsel's Office. ``The settlement purports to dismiss all public agency lawsuits. It's not clear how the money would be paid out.'' Shortly after the settlement was announced, the Board of Supervisors directed its tobacco legal team to make sure the county was not left out of the loop. The board ordered the creation of a task force to determine the merits of the proposed settlement and its impact on the county. The county sued 14 cigarette manufacturers in August 1996, and in April became the first local entity to be given permission by the courts to proceed with litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. against the tobacco industry. The danger is that the county's suit would be dismissed under the terms of the wide-ranging settlement without giving the county any way to collect, Carnevale said. Under the terms of the settlement, the tobacco companies would pay out the money as long as no future suits by public agencies can be brought against them. ``We need to find out how it's going to be split up among the states,'' Carnevale said. But Rob Stutzman, a spokesman for the California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W). Attorney General's Office, said lawyers for the state have met with the tobacco legal teams from Los Angeles and San Francisco and have assured them their interests will be represented. He said the state will try to get the counties a place at the negotiating table when the state's portion of the settlement is worked out. ``There is an effort on the attorney general's part to make sure counties don't get left out in the cold,'' Stutzman said. The state filed its lawsuit lawsuit: see procedure; tort. against the tobacco companies June 12, just days before the settlement was announced. The state is seeking reimbursement for $433 million in Medi-Cal costs associated with tobacco-related illnesses. |
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