Mar. 21—STEUBEN TOWNSHIP — Members of PENNCREST School Board last week voted unanimously to accept a settlement offer in a class-action lawsuit against a maker of vaping products accused of marketing its products toward children.

PENNCREST will receive $52,168 in the settlement with Juul labs Inc., the Washington D.C.-based maker of electronic cigarettes. The district's portion comes from a settlement pool of $600 million for school districts and municipalities that received preliminary approval in January from Judge William Orrick of U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, where the suit was filed.

Attorney Thomas W. King III congratulated the board after the settlement was approved during the board's meeting Thursday.

"You were one of the first districts in Pennsylvania to join the lawsuit against Juul," said King, who attended the meeting via videoconference. "So the funds being received tonight are the product of, I think, an intelligent decision made by that board to join the suit."

There could be additional payouts, according to King. While the case against Juul has been settled, litigation against cigarette maker Altria Group Inc. continues, with San Francisco Unified School District set to go to court against the tobacco company in April.

"It's the first case that would actually be tried," King said. "Luckily for us, that case is being tried in San Francisco."

The settlement with Juul was among several settlements with groups consisting of schools, local and tribal governments and consumers that the company announced in December. Nearly 10,000 plaintiffs were among the various groups. The Wall Street Journal reported the total value at $1.7 billion.

PENNCREST School Board members voted unanimously to join the lawsuit in November 2020 in an agreement with the Frantz Law Group, APLC, the California law firm leading the claim; Watts & Pepicelli P.C. of Meadville, the district's law firm at the time; and Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham LLP of Butler, which coordinated Pennsylvania school district plaintiffs for the case. King is a partner with Dillon McCandless, which on March 13 was approved by the board as the district's new law firm.

The 2020 agreement calls for 25 percent of any settlement proceeds collected after Jan. 1, 2021, to be paid in attorneys' fees with the possibility of additional fees for expenses associated with the case. The settlement agreement estimates these additional fees at 7 percent to 10 percent of the district's gross settlement. Attorneys fees and additional costs could bring the district's net settlement down to between about $33,900 and $35,500. PENNCREST incurred no costs in joining the suit.

The proceeds are intended to be used for "compensatory restitution or remediation," according to the settlement agreement. These terms are intentionally broad, the agreement states, in order to "provide flexibility ... to use the settlement proceeds to address the problem of youth vaping and nicotine addiction."

Board members on Thursday also unanimously approved an agreement to join another group of contingency-based class-action suits against various companies that own social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. The suits are again being led by Frantz Law Group of San Diego and include fees similar to the Juul case.

A Frantz Law Group memo on the case provided to board members states that the case will argue that the various social media platforms "contribute to the youth mental health crisis through (their) algorithms, their marketing approach and their business strategies."

The agreement was approved without any discussion from board members.

Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at mcrowley@meadvilletribune.com.