Altria Pays $235 Million After San Francisco Schools Rest Their Case in First JUUL Bellwether Trial

For years, school administrators and staff across San Francisco watched vaping spread through their campuses. The San Francisco Unified School District filed suit against Juul Labs and, separately, against Altria Group, the tobacco conglomerate that poured $13 billion into Juul in 2018 and held a 35 percent stake. The district alleged that Altria was not a passive investor: it had conspired with Juul to develop and market sweet, flavored nicotine products that were deliberately calibrated to attract teenagers.

The case against Juul was resolved in December 2022 as part of a broader $1.7 billion global settlement reached on the eve of trial. The Altria case was a different fight. The cases were consolidated as MDL No. 2913 before U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who named Sarah London, Dean Kawamoto, Ellen Relkin and Dena Sharp co-lead counsel and Thomas Cartmell of Wagstaff & Cartmell Plaintiffs' Government Entity Liaison Counsel, with a 14-lawyer steering committee. Cartmell tried the school district's case, and SFUSD's claims were selected as the first bellwether trial in the MDL, a test case that would signal how juries viewed Altria's culpability across thousands of pending claims.

Trial began on April 24, 2023, in federal court in San Francisco. In opening statements, Cartmell told the jury that Altria was 'at the heart' of Juul's youth-targeting strategy, pointing to the company's investment in sweet flavors and aggressive advertising that lit up social media. Altria's defense team argued the company had aimed to steer adult cigarette smokers toward a less harmful alternative and that Juul sales had actually declined after Altria's involvement. The district presented evidence that school staff had devoted significant time and resources to managing vaping incidents and the health consequences of student nicotine addiction.

After plaintiffs rested their case, Altria agreed to settle. On May 10, 2023, the company announced a $235 million resolution covering approximately 6,000 pending e-vapor lawsuits from school districts, government entities, Native American tribes, and individuals nationwide, claims in which Wagstaff & Cartmell represented hundreds of school districts, including some of the largest in the country. Combined with the earlier Juul settlement, the total recovery across the MDL reached just under $2 billion.

The $235 million settlement closed the Altria phase of the litigation without a jury verdict on liability.