ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Five union trusts plan to appeal a federal court decision in Baltimore that prevents them from recovering the costs of health care for smokers because they are merely intermediaries between workers and employers.

U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Garbis, citing rulings in similar cases in Pennsylvania and Florida, said the funds did not spend their own money on sick smokers and therefore had no legal right to recover damages.

A lawyer for the Maryland funds said Garbis' decision will be appealed.

''I think the decision was basically dead wrong,'' said Robert Connerton, a Washington lawyer who coordinates cases brought by funds in Maryland and other states nationwide.

The funds, which represent about 120,000 workers, negotiate health-care benefits for workers so that they can change companies.

The funds claimed the tobacco industry misrepresented the dangers of smoking cigarettes and the addictiveness of nicotine. As a result, the lawsuit argued, workers suffered serious health problems that cost the funds money.

''In this court's view, plaintiffs' entire complaint suffers from the fundamental flaw that the funds themselves, as opposed to their participants or the pertinent employers, have not suffered any cognizable damages,'' Garbis wrote in his 33-page decision Monday.

Garbis said the funds did not suffer damages because they were supported by contributions negotiated between employers and workers. Garbis also ruled that funds were too ''remote'' from any harm to collect damages.

''Rather, in the instant case, 'plaintiffs are merely handling the payments with money provided by others, and have no genuine stake in the matter,''' Garbis wrote, quoting the Pennsylvania decision.

A lawyer for Philip Morris Inc. welcomed the decision. Steven Rissman said similar rulings could prompt state judges in Maryland and elsewhere to dismiss lawsuits that attorneys general filed to recoup billions of dollars in Medicaid costs.

''Short cuts don't make good law,'' he said. ''When you get out of politically charged state courts...the law is being applied and the cases are being dismissed.''

But Russell Smouse, a Baltimore lawyer who is representing Maryland in its case, said there is no correlation between state government cases and the federal union cases.

State governments can show they were harmed because the states paid the medical bills directly, he said.

''These are separate and entirely different types of litigation,'' Smouse said.

The plaintiffs in the Maryland case were Seafarers Welfare Plan, United Industrial Workers Welfare Plan, Construction Workers' Trust Fund, Cabinetmakers' Local No. 974 and Carpenters' Local No. 1110 Health and Welfare Fund.

Named in the lawsuit were: Philip Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Lorillard Tobacco Co., The American Tobacco Co., the Council for Tobacco Research -- USA Inc., The Tobacco Institute, Hill and Knowlton Inc. and United States Tobacco Co.

B.A.T. Industries PLC and Smokeless Tobacco Council joined in the motion to dismiss.