Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. appointed lead class counsel to pursue claims on arising out of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.’s Camel Cash program members

Sateriale, et al., v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. commenced this action on behalf of former members of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.’s (“Reynolds”) Camel Cash loyalty program.  The action alleges that Reynolds breached its contract with Camel Cash program members as of October 1, 2006, when Reynolds removed all of the non-tobacco items from the program and offered only cigarettes or coupons for dollars off packs of cigarettes.

Beginning in 1991, Reynolds conducted the Camel Cash program pursuant to which adult smokers could purchase Camel cigarettes and college Camel Cash or “C-Notes” that were appended to the packs.  Adult smokers were promised that they could exchange the C-Notes for merchandise offered by Reynolds.  For fifteen years, Reynolds published a succession of Camel Cash catalogs, either in hard copy or on-line, which identified a variety of merchandise that Camel Cash program members could obtain for C-Notes.  On October 1, 2006, however, Reynolds made a limited announcement that the program would end on March 31, 2007.  At the same time Reynolds removed all of the merchandise from program and, for the first time in the history of the Camel Cash program, allowed consumers to trade C-Notes only for a limited number of packs of cigarettes or $5-off coupons for cartons or packs of cigarettes.  Program members who had been collecting C-Notes for years to obtain desirable merchandise found that they could only obtain more cigarettes or coupons that could only be used if they bought more cigarettes.

On December 19, 2014, the District Court denied Reynolds’s motion for summary judgment. The District Court also granted plaintiffs motion, in part, and certified the following class:

All persons in California who, as adult smokers, were assigned registration numbers by RJR, collected C-Notes, and held C-Notes as of October 1, 2006.

Exclusions: Defendant, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers and directors are excluded from the classes. Also excluded are employees of the Court, including, but not limited to, judges, magistrate judges, clerks, and court staff and personnel of the United States District Courts of the Central District of California, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court; their spouses or significant others and any minor children living in their households and any other persons within a third degree of relationship to any such federal judge; and finally, the entire jury venire called to for jury service in relation to this lawsuit. Any attorneys or other or other employees of any law firms hired, retained, and/or appointed by or on behalf of the named plaintiffs to represent the named plaintiffs and any/or proposed class members or proposed class in this lawsuit are excluded as well.

The District Court appointed Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., along with co-counsel, Glancy Binkow & Goldberg, LLP, to serve as class counsel.

The District Court has ordered that trial commence on November 3, 2014.

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