Tobacco industry gets win at Florida Supreme Court

“(What) matters for purposes of reliance is that the plaintiff be able to prove a causal connection running from an Engle defendant’s statement or statements, to the plaintiff’s beliefs about the health effects or addictiveness of smoking cigarettes, to the plaintiff’s injury,” said the 25-page majority opinion, written by Justice Carlos Muniz and joined by Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justices Ricky Polston, Alan Lawson, John Couriel and Jamie Grosshans. “The statements relied upon must have been capable of causing the plaintiff to form a false belief about the health effects or addictiveness of smoking cigarettes.”