Tobacco Lawyer Testifies For State -- `Safe' Cigarette Project Was Quashed, He Says
He looked so much like the two dozen other lawyers in the room, with his pin-striped suit and power tie. But the words that came off Lawrence Meyer's lips - the ones about conspiracy and threats - were some of the most damning to his opponents.
Meyer, who is former outside counsel to the Liggett tobacco company, testified for the state of Washington yesterday in King County Superior Court. He was an important man for Liggett, and it was the first case of a tobacco-industry lawyer cooperating with anti-tobacco plaintiffs.
Meyer testified about the secret "XA" project to make a "safer" cigarette, which involved blending chemicals in cigarettes to neutralize cancer-causing compounds in smoke. The tobacco industry squashed the project because, he said, its lawyers thought a "safe" cigarette, in effect, would be an admission that all other cigarettes were dangerous. It would undermine the industry and mean infinite lawsuits from smokers.
Meyer was subpoenaed to testify for Washington state in its several-billion-dollar lawsuit against the tobacco industry. He agreed to testify after Liggett waived its attorney-client privilege. Liggett settled with Washington and 20 other states in March 1997, agreeing to pay them $25 million, plus 2.5 percent of pretax profits over the next 25 years, and to help anti-tobacco plaintiffs.
Washington's lawsuit accuses Big Tobacco of conspiring to violate antitrust laws and consumer-protection laws. Washington also charges that the industry hid health research, manipulated nicotine levels and marketed to children. The state is seeking $2.2 billion to reimburse Medicaid costs, but that number could double with penalties for antitrust and consumer-protection violations.
Meyer, who worked for Liggett from 1974 to 1986, said the industry threatened Liggett. Meyer recounted his conversations with Joseph Greer, Liggett's general counsel, who died in 1985 of lung cancer.
According to Meyer's testimony, Greer said a lawyer for Brown & Williamson Tobacco warned there would be consequences if Liggett went ahead with the "XA" project. The "XA" cigarette did not cause cancerous tumors on mice in tests and showed some promise as a "safer" cigarette, Meyer said.
The lawyer for Brown & Williamson "was just concerned that this project was idiotic and . . . that it would be ruinous for the industry," Meyer said. The lawyer warned that if Liggett went ahead with the "XA" project the company would not be allowed to participate in the industry's joint defense on lawsuits, Meyer testified.
He said the "XA" project was important for Liggett. "It was something that . . . was going to transform Liggett's position in the industry, and perhaps the industry itself," Meyer said. Liggett had declined from a leading tobacco company to one of the smallest, with less than 5 percent of the market.
But Meyer also testified that while tests showed "XA" eliminated up to 100 percent of cancerous tumors on mice, there was no evidence that it did not cause illnesses like heart disease and emphysema.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.