Bill to Let State Join Tobacco Suit OKd

SACRAMENTO — On a bipartisan vote, the Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly gave final approval to a bill that would allow Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren to have California join other states in suing the tobacco industry.

The measure by Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno), which passed 63 to 10, now goes to Gov. Pete Wilson.

A spokesman for Wilson said that if the bill “removes the barrier to filing a lawsuit [against tobacco companies], the governor will sign the bill and then call on the attorney general to immediately file a lawsuit.”

The measure would “allow California to take to the courts its views of the questionable practices” of the tobacco industry in California, said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s deputy chief of staff.

Lungren, the state’s top law enforcement official, was tied up in meetings in Los Angeles and unavailable for comment.

But Rob Stutzman, Lungren’s spokesman, said, “The attorney general had requested a change in the law. It appears that the speaker’s bill would remove” any bar to suing the tobacco companies.

“As he has said in the past, the attorney general would now be able to contemplate a lawsuit and most likely will file suit,” Stutzman said.

Lungren has said that current state law does not allow him to sue major tobacco companies. As a consequence, he has refused to join other state attorneys general and California cities and counties in going to court against the tobacco industry.

The litigation seeks to recover billions of dollars that governmental entities say they have laid out over the years to pay medical costs of ill smokers. Bustamante’s bill allows the state to sue but not private citizens. Another pending bill would allow individuals to sue, as well.

“Even though the individual assumes the risk when smoking a cigarette, California does not assume the risk in providing health care to tens of thousands of people with tobacco-related illnesses,” Bustamante said.

Bustamante cited figures from the Medi-Cal program, the state’s health program for the poor, showing that California taxpayers spend about $350 million a year to treat illnesses directly related to smoking.

The speaker maintained that the measure (AB 1603) merely spells out the intent of California’s current product liability law, removing any potential hurdles for Lungren to join in lawsuits filed by other states.

The legislation “provides the attorney general the opportunity to be at the table when the other states are negotiating” with tobacco companies, Bustamante said.

Two other tobacco lawsuit bills have passed the Senate and are pending in the Assembly. One, by Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), would allow individual Californians to sue tobacco manufacturers. The other, by Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford), would allow victims of “secondhand smoke” to sue for damages.

Steve Tatum, a second spokesman for Wilson, said the governor was withholding comment on specific bills. Similarly, Stutzman said Lungren has not taken a position on any of the pending tobacco bills.

The Assembly’s action Wednesday was to concur in amendments made to Bustamante’s bill in the Senate. The upper house had approved the legislation Monday.