Coordinated Smoking and Health Literature Collection and Retrieval

One of Defendants' paramount objectives has consistently been to avoid the issuance of any liability findings that could result in large damage awards as well as increased public recognition of the harmful effects of smoking. In pursuit of that objective, Defendants collectively gathered, organized, stored, and eventually automated medical and scientific literature related to smoking and health research.
According to a February 1969 Lorillard memorandum, Defendants' "Central File" was started in the late 1950s, was supported financially by all members of the industry, and was supervised by the Ad Hoc Committee. It was eventually consolidated and put under the direct supervision of Defendants' attorney Edwin Jacob. The "Central File" was a collection of every document which could be found relating to the smoking and health controversy. Beginning in or about 1967, the major tobacco companies, with the exception of Lorillard, also joined together and established an "Information Center" for the collection, summarization, and computerization of all information and documents concerning smoking and health. The purpose of the Information Center was to have information readily available to the industry for litigation and congressional hearings. 044227839-7844 (US 20066); 044227839-7844 (US 20066); 500289915-9918 (US 29454); 01422304-2304 (US 20288); 85649920-9920 (US 21080); 80680229-0229 (US 31967).
By 1964, indices of scientific literature were also being compiled separately by the individual Defendants and their agents for litigation purposes. Edwin Jacob, attorney for CTR, Reynolds, and B&W, employed a supervisor and three other employees to abstract and catalogue current medical and scientific literature by subject and author for litigation purposes. Henry Ramm, attorney for Reynolds, kept a similar but larger index, containing over 20,000 documents in eight volumes. In addition, Kenneth Austin and three other CTR staff members compiled indices of scientific literature for litigation purposes. Litigation indices were also kept by Janet Brown, attorney for American, and Alexander Holtzman, attorney for Philip Morris. Liggett hired a person to gather literature and advocated using space at an outside law firm of one of the companies to do the task, so that future literature could be collected "under the wing" of counsel. 1003119099-9135 (US 20152); LG2017032-7034 (US 34100).

In a mid-1960s report, Lorillard stated Because of the continued attacks on the industry . . . it is in the best interests of Lorillard to join forces with all other members of the industry concerning the health controversy.

¶Although each cigarette company handled its own litigation through various trial attorneys,

there is a high degree of cooperation between the companies through . . . the "Ad Hoc Committee" which finds medical witnesses and prepares testimony. Lorillard's representative on this Committee is Mr. David Hardy. The Committee supervises the Central File which is a collection of every document which can be found relating to the smoking and health controversy. This cooperation must be continued. An adverse decision against any member of the industry would be disastrous to all.

¶80684691-4695 (US 21067).

Defendants shared the expense of bibliographic services and analysis performed for the Central File. 85649920-9920 (US 21080); 80680229-0229 (US 31967).
In 1971, the services supported under the Central File and the services performed by the Information Center were transferred to CTR. At the first meeting of CTR's Board of Directors after its incorporation in 1971, the Board gave approval to CTR to take over and operate, as a CTR Special Project, an information and retrieval system and to computerize medical literature, articles, and other published documents relating to tobacco and health, with the expenses to be borne by the participating companies. At the first annual meeting of CTR members after incorporation, the members approved the name Information Systems for this special project. Information Systems became a division of CTR which analyzed, summarized, indexed, and retrieved scientific and medical literature at the direction of Defendants' attorneys. Defendants relied on this division of CTR to review the medical literature relating to smoking and health even though they continued to monitor literature in-house. CTRMIN-BD000001-0303 at 0007-0008 (JD 093208); CTRMIN- MOM000001-0015 (US 21145); Zahn PD, Massachusetts v. Philip Morris, 5/28/98, 143:8-23; Lisanti PD, Arch v. American Tobacco, 6/10/97, 101:10-102:15.

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The Report of the Chairman to the second annual meeting of CTR members held on January 28, 1972, revealed that Information Systems had been changed to Information Retrieval Division. The Division was staffed by a group of twenty-six people and financed separately from the general budget; its name was eventually changed to the Literature Retrieval Division. CTRMIN-MOM000016-0034 (US 21170); McAllister TT, 3/21/05, 16161:16-16162:6; Duffin PD, Munn, 1/7/87, 161:17-25, 164:23-167:10, 171:7-15; DXA0630917-1033 at 0964-0965 (US 75927); WAX001 0698-0786 at 0771-0772 (US 75555); USX6400001-0527 at 0347-0350 (US 89561); USX6400001-0527 at 0225-0227 (US 89561); USX6400001-0527 at 0136-0138 (US 89561).
CTR maintained a separate checking account called CTR Special Account No. 1 for the Literature Retrieval Division. CTR requested, received, and deposited monies from its sponsor companies for the Literature Retrieval Division. Pollice WD, 3:3-5:1.

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In addition to the CTR Literature Retrieval Division, Defendants American, B&W, Liggett, Lorillard, Philip Morris, and Reynolds also continued to fund Special Account No. 3 through Edwin Jacob's firm. The account was designated as a "File for Litigation" and was "used to maintain an office where several doctors work on an analysis of medical literature." 682150942- 0942 (US 86491).
Yearly expenditures for the Literature Retrieval Division continued to be shared by Defendants from 1970 until the Literature Retrieval Division ceased to exist in 1983. 70124547- 4547, CTRLRD004193-4193 (US 31557); 70124546-4546, CTRLRD004192-4192 (US 31556); 70124548-4548, CTRLRD004233-4233 (US 31558); 70124544-4544, CTRLRD004190-4190 (US 31554); 70124545-4545, CTRLRD004191-4191 (US 31555); 11275453-5453, CTRLRD004232- 4232 (US 26402).
During her tenure in the Public Affairs Division of the Tobacco Institute, Anne Duffin obtained source material from the Literature Retrieval Division to assist her in writing articles, pamphlets, handouts, and other publications. Examples include "Smoking and Health 1964- 1979, The Continuing Controversy," "Cigarette Smoking and Cancer: A Scientific Perspective, 1982," and "Cigarette Smoking and Heart Disease, 1983." Duffin PD, Munn v. Philip Morris, 1/7/87, 161:17-162:3, 162:20-163:15, 164:23-168:5, 169:4-16, 171:7-15, 173:2-174:3, 174:11-19, 176:18-22; 519838352-8517 (US 87707); 519838518-8621 (US 87708); 519838622-8674 (US 87709).
Alexander Spears's informal review report described the Literature Retrieval Division operation as "nearly complete coverage of the world medical literature on tobacco and health available at each user location with essentially state of art information search and retrieval capability." Because the Literature Retrieval Division system was useful to Lorillard "in the area of tobacco and health related to litigation and governmental regulatory proceedings," Spears supported the decision by Lorillard to fund the Literature Retrieval Division "since it seems an integral part of defending the industry and this company in the defined area." Lorillard funded the Literature Retrieval Division from 1980 through 1983. 01422327-2328 (US 20050); Stevens WD, 42:19-43:22; DXA0630917-1033 at 1025 (US 75927).

197

In September 1981, the Ad Hoc Committee, including William Shinn and Robert Northrip from Shook, Hardy & Bacon, met and discussed a proposal to sever the Literature Retrieval Division from CTR and reorganize it, along with the Central File (sometimes referred to as the Tobacco Litigation File), into a separate corporation. By providing litigation support services to counsel defending smoking and health actions, the separate corporation would be able to provide more extensive and reliable work product protection for the Literature Retrieval Division's microfilmed, computerized database and abstracts on smoking and health information when discovery was sought in litigation. See (no bates) (US 36321 at 275). The proposal, which was ultimately adopted and implemented, recommended that: (1) the Literature Retrieval Division be removed to the custody of defense counsel into a new business corporation to be formed called LS, Inc., the stock of which would be owned by the four law firms; (2) payments to LS, Inc. by the law firms would be on a per client market share basis for all functions; (3) the only users of the system would be the four law firms plus Covington & Burling, representing the Tobacco Institute; (4) the only use of the system would be for litigation, which would be defined to include administrative proceedings and legislative hearings, at which proceedings and hearings the law firms were representing their clients; and (5) Fred Giller, then-Director of CTR's Literature Retrieval Division, would be appointed President and CEO of LS, Inc. Stevens WD, 42:19-43:22; DXA0630917-1033 at 0964-0965 (US 75927); USX6400001-0527 at 0225-0227 (US 89561); USX6400001-0527 at 0136-0138 (US 89561); USX6400001-0527 at 0347-0350 (US 89561); ATX9275490271-0280 (US 36231); LG2000741-0750 (US 36269); 515848825-8830 (US 21583); 2015020054-0054 (US 36628); 2015020046-0046 (US 36627); 2015020038-0038 (US 36626); 2015020032-0032 (US 36625); 2015020021-0021 (US 36624).

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In March 1983, the Committee of Counsel approved the implementation and incorporation of LS, Inc. LG2000823-0832 (US 21544); 2047663658-3695 (US 20481); 2047663658-3695 (US 20481).