San Francisco Examiner
Thursday, March 26, 1999
Tobacco firms sued over billboards: 40 are allegedly too close to playgrounds, schools in S.F.; state not enforcing law

By Scott Winokur
of the Examiner Staff

Tired of waiting for the state to enforce a new anti-smoking law, a San Francisco lawyer sued four tobacco companies Thursday, accusing them of violating a statute barring billboard ads within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds.

Forty allegedly illegal billboards were identified in the Mission District, South of Market and Bayview-Hunters Point by Janet Mangini, who sued on behalf of the general public under state laws against unfair and illegal business practices.

"An easy drive around San Francisco makes it apparent that there is widespread disobedience" of the state law that took effect Jan. 1, said Mangini's suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

The suit called for a court order barring the ads, a public information campaign in support of anti-smoking education in the classroom and the return of all revenues earned by tobacco companies as a result of the alleged illegal ads.

Named were: the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. of Louisville, Ky. (Lucky Strike); R.J. Reynolds Tobacco of Winston-Salem, N.C. (Camel and Winston); Philip Morris of Richmond, VA (Marlboro); and Lorillard of Greensboro, N.C. (Newport).

"We haven't seen anything and we don't know what's in it, so it's difficult to comment," Brown & Williamson spokesman Mark Smith said Thursday.

Spokesmen for the other tobacco companies did not return phone calls.

The suit did not name the state Department of Health Services, which is responsible for enforcing the law, or billboard companies that post and maintain the ads.

"Our concern is to get the billboards down, not to point blame at the state," said attorney Alan Caplan of Bushnell, Caplan & Fielding in San Francisco, which filed the suit on Mangini's jointly with Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes & Lerach of San Diego.

"The state has a role in implementing the law," Caplan said, "but that doesn't excuse the tobacco companies from obeying it."

If Mangini wins, he added, it would mean offending billboards throughout the state had to come down, not only those in the suit.

The Jan. 1 billboard ban, sponsored by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-S.F., set fines of $200 to $4,000 for violations, but the state health agency acknowledges doing nothing but plan for its implementation. Funds and personnel have not been added and the law has not been enforced.

"It's outrageous," Migden said, hailing Thursday's lawsuit. "If they feel they need to remedy it with a private action, I understand the passion behind the effort."

She noted, however, that she also has been concerned about footdragging in Sacramento.

"I asked my people to look into this to see if the machinery had moved quickly and it hadn't, Migden said. "It's often the case that we pass statutes that become effective Jan.1 and we're not prepared to implement them."

Mike Genest, the health agency's deputy for prevention, said $148,000 has been earmarked to add one position to the department's eight-member statewide anti-tobacco team, but the money won't become available before July 1.

"They want a guy with a gun or a badge walking around the schools. Well, we don't have field-level enforcement yet, but that doesn't mean we're not doing anything," Genest said.

The health department has been in contact with the state's eight major billboard companies, he said, and its attorneys have been focusing on legal issues that may arise once enforcement begins.

But Migden's chief of staff, Dan Reeves, said he wasn't satisfied with the state's excuses and vowed: "Until I see billboards coming down, particularly in San Francisco, I'll be on them on a daily basis."

Lou Lillian, head of San Francisco operations for Outdoor Systems, which owns 19 of the 40 billboards identified in the suit, said his company has been moving on its own to "self-police" under the ban.

"We may drop the ball from time to time, but we're trying to do it ourselves and wean ourselves from tobacco," Lillian said.