N.C. court ends payments to tobacco growers in Maryland, Pennsylvania
RALEIGH — The state's highest court says three cigarette companies no longer have to make payments to tobacco farmers in Maryland and Pennsylvania through a decade-old settlement.
The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that Philip Morris, Lorillard and R.J. Reynolds tobacco companies could stop making payments to those growers through a 1999 agreement. The agreement says the companies could reduce their payments when Congress agreed to a buyout for quota owners in 2004.
The justices ruled the states entered the agreement knowing the payments would end as a result of a quota buyout.
Maryland's Department of Agriculture said farmers in that state and in Pennsylvania would have received $22 million had a trial court ruling been upheld.
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