Saint Louis, Missouri - 37 hospitals suing tobacco companies..

March 9, 2011 - Thirty seven Missouri hospitals suing tobacco companies are trying to get reimbursed for treating dog bites, car accidents and broken bones – ailments that have nothing to do with smoking, according to a Missouri Lawyers Weekly story quoting a defense attorney on the first day of a long-awaited trial.

The suit was first filed in 1998, at the same time as the multi-state tobacco settlement was signed. Tobacco company critics say it is an achievement for the Missouri hospitals to have got their case before a jury. The trial is expected to last a record six months.

The hospitals are suing 11 defendants – six cigarette-makers and their parent companies – to recoup health care costs incurred while treating smoking-related illnesses or complications of patients who could not pay.

The defendants say the injuries the hospitals allege are too indirect or remote to support a recovery of expenditures.

Earlier news briefs: St. Louis, Missouri - lawsuit by hospitals after 12 years to go to trial January 2011..

Missouri - Smoking & Tobacco Use

Reference: Dog bites tobacco companies finally makes the news, Tobacco Reporter 3/9/2011.