PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- An appeals court has upheld a decision to throw out a lawsuit by seven Pennsylvania union health funds seeking to collect health-care costs from the tobacco industry.

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday thaat U.S. District Judge John Fullam was correct in his April 1998 ruling.Fullam said the welfare funds had no legal right to recover the millions of dollars in payments because they had not spent their own money on sick smokers.

The private funds, which allow union workers to maintain health benefits as they change companies, represent more than 7,500 blue-collar workers and retirees.

In the suit, the union welfare funds argued that the tobacco industry intentionally targeted less educated, blue-collar workers with special advertising and promotional campaigns featuring images such as Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man.

Pennsylvania is among 38 states in which union health funds have sued the tobacco industry. Around the country, at least nine similar cases have been thrown out, with some judges saying the unions have no legal standing unless they file separate lawsuits on behalf of every smoker.

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The appeals court decision comes 11 days after a federal jury in Akron, Ohio, rejected a $2 billion class-action lawsuit filed by 114 Ohio union trust funds accusing cigarette makers of deliberately trying to hook union workers.

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