In a legal blow to the tobacco industry, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that people who smoked light cigarettes that were often promoted as a safer alternative to regular cigarettes can press their fraud claim as a class-action suit. Judge Jack B. Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn found “substantial evidence” that the manufacturers knew that light cigarettes were at least as dangerous as regular cigarettes.
William S. Ohlemeyer, associate general counsel of Altria, whose Philip Morris division makes half the nation’s cigarettes, said “the judge is wrong on the law and wrong on the facts.” Mr. Ohlemeyer said that the government, not tobacco companies, promoted the idea that lights were a safer alternative cigarette.
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