MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

WILLIAM G. YOUNG1, District Judge.

My name is Bill Young. The Chief Justice has designated me a visiting judge in the Middle District of Florida charged with the responsibility of managing the Engle tobacco docket cases to trial. While I welcome the challenge enthusiastically and expect to work hard, you should understand I have no especial skill either in the management of so many related cases or in substantive Florida products liability law. I am trying to fill the shoes of those superb and devoted district judges of the Middle District of Florida who have brought order to this large caseload and established the major jurisprudential standards for its resolution. This memorandum sets forth the framework for the further pre-trial case management of these cases.

General Considerations. In order to move these cases to trial expeditiously, we shall need both judges and courtrooms. We'll seek judges through the 11th Circuit and the Judicial Conference Committee on Intercircuit Assignment. We'll find courtrooms wherever the Middle District of Florida sits and, if necessary, in the Northern and Southern Districts of Florida as well.

I'll handle the cases to the time of the final pre-trial conference and pass them off to the judges who will preside over the trials. As the new kid on the block, there is a natural tendency for parties to seek to relitigate matters already addressed and resolved. Resist it. I intend to carry on the work already so well begun with a strong emphasis on "the law of the case" and a proper invocation of the doctrines of issue and claim preclusion.

Staffing. While I am well supported by the entire clerks' staffs in the Middle District of Florida and in my home district, the District of Massachusetts, you will be interacting especially with these outstanding professionals:

Within the Middle District of Florida, Deputy Operations Director Elizabeth Warren (phone no. 407-835-4351) will match visiting judges with their available court dates and courtrooms and will order up the necessary courtroom deputies, court reporters, and jurors. Her arrangements are made with the full authority of the Court and carry the weight of court orders.

On my personal staff, three people in particular will share the day-to-day work load.

Courtroom Deputy Jennifer Gaudet (phone no. 617-748-9156) will handle all pre-trial hearings, conferences, and individual case management. She speaks for the Court in all respects and, like Elizabeth Warren, what she says carries the weight of a court order. Ms. Gaudet is an expert on practice and procedure and a font of knowledge about just how this Court works.

Judicial Assistant Elizabeth Sonnenberg (phone no. 617-748-4150) will handle all the docketing aspects of these cases and can answer any questions about electronic docketing.

Court Reporter Don Womack (e-mail womackigmegatran.com) has worked with me for nearly 30 years. A true professional and real-time reporter, he maintains an electronic database of everything I've done as a federal judge.

Case Activation Order. Having reviewed the dockets and prior orders in these related cases, the Court now orders:

1. The 50 cases listed in Appendix A (wave 4) are activated and shall be deemed trial ready on January 2, 2014. Motions for summary judgment, if any, shall be filed no later than November 1, 2013. An individualized complaint in each of these cases, compliant with the earlier orders of this Court, shall be filed on or before Thursday, August 22, 2013.

2. The 110 cases listed in Appendix B (wave 5) are activated and shall be deemed trial ready on May 1, 2014. Motions for summary judgment, if any, shall be filed no later than February 3, 2014. An individualized complaint in each of these cases, compliant with the earlier orders of this Court, shall be filed not later than Thursday, September 12, 2013.

3. The 121 cases listed in Appendix C (wave 6) are activated and shall be deemed trial ready on September 2, 2014. Motions for summary judgment, if any, shall be filed no later than June 2, 2014. An individualized complaint in each of these cases, compliant with the earlier orders of this Court, shall be filed not later than Thursday, October 3, 2013.

Orders for the Pre-trial Preparation of the Activated Cases

a. Within 30 days of the date of the filing of the individualized complaint, the parties in each case shall meet, confer, and submit for approval a joint proposed case management order (in the form attached as Appendix D) leading to trial readiness on the date assigned. Should full agreement not be reached, the parties shall state (on the same document) their separate positions. The Court will choose the most reasonable position. This is an incentive to be reasonable. As the attorneys in many of these cases are much the same, a single case management proposal for multiple cases to be trial ready on the same date is acceptable.

b. Experts. Experts testifying pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 702 shall timely submit the expert report required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(2)(A). These expert reports are to be drafted to the exquisite detail of a patent claim. No such expert shall be permitted to testify to anything not set forth in the expert's report. All demonstrative aids must likewise be disclosed in the expert report.

c. Mediation. The Court strongly recommends voluntary mediation of these claims. The format heretofore adopted and the skilled mediators who are already familiar with these actions may prove a valuable resource. Mediation will not, however, delay the trial readiness of these actions.

d. Pre-trial Memoranda. No later than the first day of the month preceding the month in which the case is to be trial ready, the parties shall meet, confer, and submit a detailed pre-trial memorandum in the form attached hereto as Appendix E. The Court will thereafter hold a final pre-trial conference telephonically.

e. Trial Readiness. A trial-ready case is one that is fully prepared for trial. Trial-ready cases will be called for trial with as much notice as possible on or after the trial ready date set forth above. Cases will be called for trial in the order listed in the respective appendix.

f. Continuances. Since it will be necessary to be flexible and fully occupy the time of the visiting judges available to try these cases, I cannot fix particular dates for trials. As stated above, we will give as much notice as possible. Accordingly, there must be a firm, fair continuance policy in place. Here it is: should an individual plaintiff die, the Court will grant a continuance to allow the proper court to appoint a personal representative. When a case is called for trial, should all the attorneys who have appeared for a party in that case actually be involved in another trial, the Court will continue the case until that trial is concluded. No continuance will be given for any other reason (e.g., witness unavailability). This Court will act on all motions for continuance.

g. Settlement. Should a case settle, a simple call to Ms. Gaudet will suffice to administratively close that case. You can have such time as you desire to file the necessary settlement documents, placing on the public record only such documents as you may wish. This is intended to grease the skids toward settlement. Don't ever make that call and then report that the settlement has become "unwound." The Court simply will not recognize that eventuality. M.D. Fla. L.R. 3.01(f).

h. Attached hereto as Appendix F are the Court's Basic Procedures and Modification to Local Rules when sitting as a visiting Judge.

Idiosyncrasies. All judges have idiosyncrasies. I try to keep mine to a minimum. Here are a few:

First, I am hostile to sealing documents. Court proceedings are public proceedings and should remain so.

Second, with the exception of suggestions (see below), the Court frowns on letters sent to it. Everything will be done by motion. Letters will not be read, docketed, or acknowledged.

Suggestions. While I take full responsibility for everything I do, I'm certainly open to systemic suggestions and will read (but not acknowledge) any non-case specific suggestion. For example, would anyone go jury-waived in return for a prompt trial? Waive venue? Try a case to a jury before a presiding magistrate judge? A special master? Can we select the cases to be tried in a better way? Is global mediation (I know its been tried before) worth a shot? Are there common issues we could isolate for a joint trial? You people know these cases much better than I. You have a common, professional interest in their prompt, fair resolution. How can I do it better?

Conclusion. The goal, of course, is the "just, speedy, and inexpensive" resolution of each of these cases. Fed. R. Civ. P. 1. Those terms, however, are neither self-defining nor self-executing. Here, therefore, are four lodestars that will guide me as we proceed:

There has to be a safe place, and we have to be it.

As to the directions set forth herein, it is

SO ORDERED.

APPENDIX A (Wave 4)?

Wave 4 Plaintiffs Born January 1, 1931 - December 31, 1935 (50 CASES)

APPENDIX B (Wave 5)

Wave 5 Plaintiffs Born January 1, 1936 - December 31, 1941 (110 cases)

APPENDIX C (Wave 6)

Wave 6 Plaintiffs Born January 1, 1942 - December 31, 1947 (121 cases)

APPENDIX D

ORDER FOR JOINT STATEMENT

YOUNG, D.J.

To the extent that all parties are able to reach agreement on a proposed pretrial schedule, they shall so indicate. To the extent that the parties differ on what the pretrial schedule should be, they shall set forth separately the items on which they differ and indicate the nature of that difference. The purpose of the parties' proposed pretrial schedule or schedules shall be to advise the judge of parties' best estimates of the amounts of time they will need to accomplish specified pretrial steps. The parties' proposed agenda for the scheduling conference, and their proposed pretrial schedule or schedules, shall be considered by the judge as advisory only.

APPENDIX E

YOUNG D. J.

The above-entitled action is scheduled for a final pretrial conference on _____________ at ________in. _____________. Counsel shall be prepared to to commence trial of this action on or after ________. Each party shall be represented at the pretrial conference by trial counsel.

In order to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of this action in accordance with the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990, the parties shall meet prior to this conference to accomplish the following:

Counsel shall prepare and file, jointly, pretrial memoranda and/or trial documents which set forth the following:

This material shall be filed electronically with a courtesy copy to the deputy clerk, no later than the day of the scheduled final pretrial conference. A party who intends to object to any proposed exhibit or witness shall give written notice to all parties setting forth the basis for the objection and file said notice, electronically, with the clerk on or before the date of the final pretrial conference. _____________.

No later than Friday prior to the date of empanelment each party shall electronically file with a courtesy copy to the deputy clerk:

If the trial materials required by this Order have been previously filed with the Court, please advise the Court in writing of the filing date and supplement trial documents, as necessary. Immediately upon receipt of this Order, any counsel who realizes that one or more attorneys have not been notified shall forthwith notify the additional attorney(s) in writing as to the entry of this Order and file a copy of the writing with the clerk.

The judiciary's privacy policy restricts the publication of certain personal data in documents filed with the court. The policy requires limiting Social Security and financial account numbers to the last four digits, using only initials for the names of minor children, limiting dates of birth to the year, and limiting home addresses to city and state. If such information is elicited during testimony or other court proceedings, it will become available to the public when the official transcript is filed at the courthouse. The better practice is for you to avoid introducing this information into the record in the first place. Please take this into account when questioning witnesses or making other statements in court. If a restricted item is mentioned in court, you have waived any right to have it stricken or redacted thereafter.

Compliance with this Order is not excused, absent the actual filing of closing papers or the entry of a Settlement Order of Dismissal in a form prescribed by the Court.

(Appendix E-Final Pretrial Order.wpd — 09/92)

APPENDIX F

ORDER

YOUNG, D. J.

Basic Procedures and Modification to Local Rules

This action has been assigned to Judge Young for all further proceedings. To clarify and expedite the determination of issues which may arise, the following procedures are established.

1. Except as otherwise set out in this Order or by sub-sequent order, the Middle District of Florida Local Rules ("L.R.") apply to all further proceedings in this action.

2. Documents shall be filed as follows:

The foregoing should be understood to require that papers submitted to the clerk of court under seal should also be mailed to this session, either in a separate sealed envelope or stamped "filed under seal."

3. The following procedures govern oral argument on any dispositive motions filed hereafter:

(1) Dispositive Motions:

For motions filed pursuant to Rule 12(b) or Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, any party desiring oral argument shall file a request for hearing with the motion, or with an opposition to the motion. If a request is filed with the motion, any party filing an opposition is entitled to rely on that request and need not file an additional request. If a request is made for oral argument on a dispositive motion, the court will schedule oral argument. If no request is made, the court will not schedule oral argument.

Notwithstanding the preceding, if a party has already requested oral argument pursuant to the Local Rules in a pending case that is re-assigned to Judge Young, no further action shall be necessary to preserve that party's right to oral argument.

Unless otherwise ordered, when oral argument is granted it will be conducted electronically. The court will hear argument on the record in one of the courtrooms in Boston, Massachusetts.

Nothing in this paragraph extends the time for filing dispositive motions if that time has already expired pursuant to prior order of the court.

(2) Unless otherwise ordered, status conferences will be conducted telephonically. It will be the responsibility of the party requesting the status conference to arrange and pay for all necessary long-distance and conference telephone charges.

In cases where an incarcerated individual is a plaintiff, it will be the responsibility of the defendant(s) to arrange and pay for all necessary long-distance and conference telephone charges and to make appropriate requests to the institution where plaintiff is incarcerated so that he may participate.

To make arrangement for a telephonic status conference, counsel shall contact Judge Young's Courtroom Deputy Clerk Jennifer Gaudet at (617) 748-9156.

(3) Any motion for reconsideration must be filed not more than ten days after the filing of the order as to which reconsideration is sought, and shall not exceed five pages in length.

4. Key personnel data

In any assignment of this sort, myriad questions of practice and procedure arise. The Court authorizes the Courtroom Deputy Clerk to answer those questions. She is:

The Court also maintains, through the Court Reporter in this session, a searchable electronic data base of all its proceedings, i.e. motion hearings and trials from empanelment through charge and verdict. Mr. Womack may be contacted at: womack@megatran.com

DATED at Boston, Massachusetts, this 1st day of August, 2013.

With Attachments:

Counsel of Record

Hon. Anne C. Conway, Chief Judge

Hon. Joel B. Toomey

Temporary Special Master

Mediators: Michael G. Tanner, Steven C. Sawicki, John S.

Freud, and Terrance White