Saturday, April 05, 2008

The Lancaster County District Court dismissed the State Attorney General's complaint against tobacco companies participating in the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement because the State of Nebraska agreed to arbitrate any annual payment reductions. The Nebraska Supreme Court affirms, while finding the District Court's dismissal in favor of arbitration was an appealable order, the Master Settlement Agreement arbitration requirement applied to whether the States adequately and diligently enforced tobacco marketing restrictions against companies that did not participate in the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. State ex rel. Bruning v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., S-06-1027, 275 Neb. 310the district court’s order compelling arbitration and dismissing the State’s action for declaratory judgment was a final order and that this court has jurisdiction to determine this appeal. We further conclude that the district court did not err in determining that the MSA requires arbitration of the dispute over diligent enforcement of the qualifying statute. We therefore affirm the court’s order compelling arbitration and dismissing the State’s action for declaratory judgment.

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