High court declines tobacco fees case

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to accept a case that sought to invalidate the $111.25 million payday awarded to the private legal team that represented the state in the national lawsuit against the tobacco industry.

As a result, an April decision by the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District in St. Louis upholding the fee arrangement stands, bringing to an end a fight over the lawyers' compensation that spanned five years and two lawsuits.

Bevis Schock, the St. Louis lawyer who represented the plaintiffs in both legal challenges of the fee deal, said there are no remaining grounds for a third try.

Schock wished the court would have taken up the case, since he said it addressed how state government will work and offered a fundamental separation of powers issue.

The state Supreme Court's decision denied the request to hear the case and gave no comment.

The defendants included the state's lead tobacco attorney, cigarette manufacturers and Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon. Nixon spokesman Scott Holste had little to say on the matter.

"The decision by the Supreme Court not to take the case is neither surprising nor noteworthy in our view," Holste said.

Nixon hired the state's private legal team, headed by Thomas Strong of Springfield, to represent the state just months before a national settlement with tobacco producers was reached in November 1998. Missouri and other states sued the industry over the social costs of caring for sick smokers.

Under the settlement, an arbitration panel determined the compensation due each state's legal team. The tobacco companies are to pay the lawyers over 25 years.

In the latest challenge to the arrangement, the plaintiffs claimed the private lawyers served as assistant attorneys general while representing the state. So under the Missouri Constitution, plaintiffs claim the private lawyers were only entitled to compensation fixed by law. Nixon's highest-paid assistant earns nearly $99,000 a year.

A St. Louis County circuit judge rejected that argument. In upholding that decision, the appeals court said that the tobacco lawyers were "special assistant attorneys general" and not subject to the same salary limitations as lawyers on the state payroll.

Both plaintiffs, Sherry Neel and Rickey Jamerson, were involved in earlier lawsuits related to the tobacco settlement. Jamerson is a Republican Party activist from St. Louis, while Neel has been referred to as "a taxpayer and a smoker" in earlier lawsuits.

Jamerson, along with Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, had challenged Nixon's authority to contract with the outside lawyers. In December 2000, the Supreme Court found Nixon acted within his power but said the Missouri Legislature could overrule any negotiated fee arrangement, provided it did so by the end of 2001.

Kinder was unsuccessful in his legislative efforts to block the fees by the deadline.

Neel was a plaintiff in a companion case brought by Missouri hospitals, charity groups and local governments seeking a share of the settlement proceeds. The high court rejected those claims as well.

To date, the state has collected $677.8 million of the $4.5 billion budget officials currently estimate the settlement will provide Missouri over 25 years.

The case is Sherry Neel and Rickey Jamerson v. Thomas Strong, et al.

mpowers@semissourian.com

(573) 635-4608