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Non-Tech : Philip Morris - A Stock For Wealth Or Poverty (MO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: capitalistbeatnik who wrote (1871)	6/22/1998 5:33:00 PM
From: Xpiderman	Respond to of 6439

Which case, was this one overturened? A Florida jury yesterday held Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. responsible for a smoker's death and ordered the company to pay his family $950,000 -- the largest jury verdict ever in a lawsuit over tobacco's dangers and the first award of punitive damages in such a case. Roland "Eddie" Maddox, who died last year of lung cancer at age 67, had smoked unfiltered Lucky Strikes for nearly 50 years before quitting in 1995 -- one year before he was diagnosed with lung cancer. As yesterday's decision was announced in a Jacksonville, Fla., courtroom -- and televised nationally via Court TV -- Maddox's widow and daughter could be seen crying with happiness. Brown & Williamson spokesman Mark Smith said that the company was "shocked" by the verdict. "There was nothing Brown & Williamson did or could have done that would have in any way influenced Mr. Maddox's decision to smoke," he said. The company, the nation's third-largest tobacco company, will ask the judge to set aside the verdict and will appeal the decision if necessary, Smith said. The company presented evidence at the trial that Maddox understood the risks of smoking. He would joke about the dangers with co-workers at the Winn-Dixie supermarket where he worked, and called his cigarettes "coffin nails." The company also tried to cast doubt on the motives of Maddox's family, suggesting that they were trying to enrich themselves through the justice system. "This is a family that claimed that Mr. Maddox never saw a warning or understood that cigarettes could be risky until he was diagnosed with cancer in 1996. We thought that was incredible," Brown & Williamson attorney John Nyan said. Floyd Matthews, a Wilner law partner, said "we were stunned" by the company's hardball strategy, and that it "backfired" with the jury. The jury deliberated two days after the four-week trial. It also awarded $52,000 that will go directly to Maddox's insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, bringing the total judgment to more than $1 million. Juror John Bowman, a 22-year smoker, said that jurors kept punitive damages relatively low because they "weren't out here to try to make somebody rich," but wanted to send a message to the tobacco industry nonetheless, the Associated Press reported. "I don't think they will have a leg to stand on much longer," Bowman said. "We feel tobacco products, especially the nonfiltered ones, are dangerous." Wilner previously won a $750,000 victory against the same company in 1996 on behalf of smoker Grady Carter. That case is under appeal. Wilner subsequently lost two lawsuits against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Corp. Before the Carter case, the only lawsuit involving the health risks of tobacco that had ended in a damage award was a $400,000 verdict for the family of smoker Rose Cipollone in 1988. That verdict, however, was overturned on appeal, and the family ultimately dropped its efforts. Another plaintiff had previously won a multimillion-dollar judgment, including punitive damages, but that was against tobacco maker Lorillard Inc. over cancers linked to the company's asbestos-containing "Micronite" filter, not the dangers of tobacco. Nat Walker, a spokesman for RJR Nabisco, parent of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, said two cases do not make a trend. "Most jurors will continue to bring common sense to these trials and understand that people who choose to smoke do so with full awareness of the risks involved." Tobacco companies tried to end their legal battles last year by agreeing to a proposal in which cigarette makers would have paid $368.5 billion and accept broad restrictions on marketing and advertising in exchange for protection against some lawsuits. But since that June 1997 deal was struck, bills have emerged in Congress that bear little resemblance to the original deal. The current leading bill, sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), offers the industry little legal protection.