Oregon tops big tobacco, lands $9 million

It's been nearly seven years, but Oregon will receive the full payment it's owed as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

A panel of arbitrators ruled Wednesday that Big Tobacco — as Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and other tobacco companies that are part of the Master Settlement — must pay Oregon more than $9 million in back payments from the settlement. The companies argued that they should not have to make full payments because Oregon had failed to diligently enforce certain terms of the agreement.

The case was handled by a team of lawyers from the Department of Justice’s Civil Enforcement Division, along with Special Assistant Attorneys General David Markowitz and his team from Markowitz, Herbold, Glad & Mehlhaf.

This article was originally published by the Portland Business Journal. To read the entire article, visit Tobacco.