Judge mulling whether to revive cigarette lawsuit

After a hearing Tuesday in Edwardsville, Madison County Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth took the matter under advisement without offering any insight on when he might rule. A different Madison County judge in 2003 found that Philip Morris misled customers about “light” and “low tar” cigarettes and broke state law by marketing them as safer.

The state’s high court later threw out that verdict. But a state appellate court last year cleared the way for the plaintiffs to argue that a favorable 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case may be applied to reinstate the Madison County case. The class-action lawsuit involves 1.1 million people who bought “light” cigarettes in Illinois.