(The Center Square) – Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) will begin accepting payments from Altria Group, the parent company of e-cigarette brand JUUL, after multiple lawsuit settlements.
TUSD officials earlier this week approved a $3.2 million settlement as part of a class action lawsuit filed with thousands of school districts across the country. Attorneys who represented TUSD will receive 25% of the settlement funds, or $800,000, according to the Aug. 22 agenda.
This settlement from Altria comes after a previous settlement of $10 million from JUUL Labs in March, as reported by Tucson.com.
Tucson Unified School District filed a lawsuit against JUUL Labs, Altria Group and its affiliates in October 2019, alleging that marketing of vaping and its products had a negative impact on their schools, according to the agenda. The case, as a result, became a consolidated class action case that involved nearly 1,500 school districts across the country and other government entities.
TUSD, as a result, became the bellwether case, or among a handful of cases equipped to go to trial on behalf of all the other school districts, resulting in staff producing documents and being deposed by the defendants’ lawyers.
Both settlements are from the same class action lawsuit, with the most recent settlement being between TUSD and Altria’s defendants and the settlement from March between TUSD and JUUL Labs.
Funds will be distributed to the district by the end of the year, as reported by a Tucson news station KGUN.
TUSD was unable to be reached in time for publication.
