Tobacco to Venezuela: Excluding the Private Right of Action

• Author: Cecil C. Kuhne III
• Pages: 125-128

125

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Tobacco to Venezuela:

Excluding the Private

Right of Action

Lamb v. Philip Morris, Inc.

915 F.2d 1024 (6th Cir. 1990)

Billy Lamb and Carmon Willis were Kentucky farmers who grew bur-

ley tobacco for use in cigarettes and other tobacco products. eir crop

was routinely purchased by the Philip Morris corporation, who also

bought tobacco from producers in a number of foreign countries, includ-

ing Venezuela. e tobacco grown in Kentucky by farmers l ike Lamb

and Willis therefore competed with tobacco grown abroad, and any

purchases by Philip Morris f rom foreign suppliers necessarily reduced

the company’s share of domestic tobacco.

In May 1982, a Philip Morris subsidiar y entered into a contract with

La Fundación Del Niño (the Children’s Foundation) of Caracas, Ven-