Defendants are moving to dismiss all causes of action, four of them with prejudice, for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. A memorandum in excess of ten pages is required to fully address all five causes of action brought by the Plaintiffs. Defendants Memorandum of Points and Authorities filed in Support of Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is twenty-nine pages in length. In these announcements, the Attorney General has stated that she will seek the assistance of private counsel to represent the State on a contingentfee basis so that substantial recovery can be obtained at no cost to Utah taxpayers .
Plaintiffs bring five separate causes of action.
The their first three causes of action, the Tobacco Companies want this Court to prevent the Attorney General from retaining counsel on a contingent fee basis by declaring such an arrangement unlawful and by enjoining her from ever making such an agreement. In their fourth and fifth causes of action, the Tobacco Companies request a ruling from this Court on their potential defenses to the State's as yet unasserted claims that they are liable in damages for tobacco-related illnesses. Neither of these requests should be granted for neither are appropriate for relief under the Utah Declaratory Judgment Act. In this action, the Plaintiffs are simply trying to have this Court adjudicate in advance the validity of their possible defenses to the defendants threatened lawsuit. The reason for this rule is obvious.