ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996                TAG: 9605290124
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

HIGH COURT RULING SETBACK TO TOBACCO

Tobacco companies lost a round in their legal battles Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Minnesota court ruling that requires the industry to turn over computer databases that could help smokers' lawsuits proceed more quickly.

The Supreme Court action came just five days after the cigarette industry had won a major legal skirmish.

Tuesday's action involved a lawsuit that Minnesota had filed to recover the public health costs of treating sick smokers. In R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. vs. Minnesota, 95-1611, both a trial court in Minnesota as well as that state's Supreme Court had ruled that the industry must turn over the computer databases, which serve as an index to millions of internal industry documents obtained in the Minnesota suit. The databasees could pave the way for a raft of smoker's lawsuits to proceed more quickly and efficiently.

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