In 1997 the State of Georgia brought suit in the Superior Court of Fulton County against a number of cigarette manufacturers, including Brown & Williamson “B&W”, asserting product liability claims and seeking compensatory and punitive damages “to restore to the State’s treasury those funds spent by the State for tobacco attributable health care costs.” The parties settled the case one year later when the tobacco companies paid the State of Georgia $4.8 billion. The Master Settlement Agreement, which was approved by the superior court, provided, inter alia, that “no part of any payment under this Agreement is made in settlement of any actual or potential liability for . . . enhanced damages.” It also provided that the State agreed to “absolutely and unconditionally release and forever discharge all released parties from all released claims that the releasing parties directly, indirectly, derivatively or in any other capacity ever had, now have, or hereafter can, shall or may have.” The agreement defined “releasing parties” in pertinent part as “persons or entities acting in a parens patriae, sovereign, quasi-sovereign, private attorney general, qui tam, taxpayer, or any other capacity . . . to the extent that any such person or entity is seeking relief on behalf of or generally applicable to the general public . . . as opposed to solely private or individual relief for separate and distinct injuries.” It also defined both “released claims” and “claims.” “Released claims” are defined, in part, as being “directly or indirectly based on, arising out of or in any way related, in whole or in part, to A the use, sale, distribution, manufacture, development, advertising, marketing or health effects of” tobacco. The definition of “claims” included “liabilities of any nature including civil penalties and punitive damages.”
Clara Gault Freeman died of lung cancer in 2001. Plaintiffs Willie Gault, the administrator of the deceased’s estate, and Danny Freeman, the deceased’s widower, brought this product liability action against B&W in Fulton County seeking compensatory and punitive damages. B&W removed the case to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and moved for summary judgment, asserting that the plaintiffs’ punitive damages claim is barred by the doctrine of res judicata. Thereafter, the district court certified this question: Does the doctrine of res judicata bar individual Georgians from seeking punitive damages against B&W when the Attorney General of Georgia, suing on behalf of the State of Georgia, released B&W from all future punitive damages claims related to the manufacture or use of tobacco products by signing the Master Settlement Agreement See 1983 Ga. Const., Art. VI, Sec. VI, Par. IV conferring in this Court jurisdiction to answer question of law from “any state appellate or federal or district or appellate court.” For the reasons that follow, we answer the question in the affirmative.
