Tobacco Litigation

The widow of a smoker who died after almost 70 years of smoking was awarded $29.1 million by a Fort Lauderdale jury on Thursday, May 20. Based on a San Francisco Chronicle article, Connie Buonomo sued on behalf of her late husband, Matthew, who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2008. He was 80-years-old and had smoked since he was 13, unable to break the addiction.

The unanimous jury verdict includes $25 million in punitive damages and just over $4 million in compensatory damages. The jurors found the R. J. Reynolds was 77.5% responsible for Buonomo’s illness and death and that he shared the remaining responsibility. Ever since the Engle class action lawsuit was decertified in Florida in 2006, individual cases have gone forward to trial and Florida tobacco attorneys continue to keep up to date on the latest news regarding these cases. To date, Big Tobacco has won three cases and lost 16.

The tobacco companies say that the findings of the Engle case - that tobacco companies sold defective products, that they concealed the dangers of smoking, and acted negligently - should not be allowed to stand untested in every case that goes forward. R. J. Reynolds is fighting the findings from the 2000 Engle trial, named for a doctor who headed the class. The company claims that to allow the original findings in each case, deprives them of a fair trial. The judge in this Fort Lauderdale case, Florida Circuit Judge Jeffrey E. Streitfeld, is the same judge who presided over the Naugle case, which ended in a $300 million award to Cindy Naugle, an ex-smoker with emphysema and the biggest post-Engle verdict to date.

Researchers warn that nicotine-laced candies, designed to get smokers to quit, may be purchased by youngsters and pose a health risk.

The candies, called Orbs, resemble Tic Tac candies and they contain about one milligram of nicotine. They are also flavored with mint or cinnamon, resemble candy and can be purchased in a grocery or convenience store.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in an article published in Pediatrics say that the candies can lure a child to the addictive habit of smoking. Some children have already been harmed.

In a few cases around the country, small children have ingested the candies who experienced symptoms of nicotine poisoning which include nausea and vomiting. Tobacco Giant, R. J. Reynolds says it has made the nicotine pellets child-resistant, but they haven’t stopped them from access.

Jacksonville tobacco lawyers have seen first-hand the devastating consequences that cigarettes and other tobacco products impose upon consumers. The rights of Florida residents who have been victims of decades of dishonesty and deception regarding the dangers of smoking deserve to be protected. Children should not be subjected to falling into this demographic.

The American Cancer Society is warning teen girls that they are being targeted with a new campaign dressed in pink.  But the message from Big Tobacco is the same - buy cigarettes.

Tobacco companies must think that young women are stupid. They are making pretty pink “purse packs” of cigarettes to attract young women smokers.  As if selling cigarettes to third world nations is not bring in enough to offset the increasing number of Americans who are quitting. This is despicable, even for Big Tobacco.

“It’s so sad, because it is so appealing, and what people don’t realize is that it takes just four cigarettes within the course of an evening to set up this addiction,” Jeneene Brengelman of the American Cancer Society says.

Brengelman should know. She has been helping smokers quit for nearly 30 years and she says it’s tougher for women to quit.

The numbers confirm that. Lung cancer is declining in men, but increasing in women, now surpassing breast cancer as a leading cause of cancer in women.

In a desperate effort to increase sales of an increasingly unpopular pastime, Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds have launched these obvious aggressive campaigns to target young teens.  Besides the purse packs which contain “Superslim Lights,” they are clearly tying cigarette smoking to staying slim.

Reynolds has been equally repugnant calling cigarettes “stilettos” and “light and luscious.” Giveaways ran in magazines and included lip gloss, cell phone jewelry and wristbands, in hot pink.  Misleading terms such as “light’ and “low-tar” are designed to lure the unsuspecting to their brand by indicating they are safer cigarettes.

For parents this is an opportunity to provide a life lesson. Look at what lengths tobacco companies will go to sell you on a “nicotine delivery system”, as insiders call cigarettes. Our team of skilled Jacksonville tobacco lawyers at Farah and Farah have seen firsthand the destruction that comes from an addiction to nicotine, pushed for decades by tobacco companies to create lifetime customers.

Pretty in Pink, Purple or Aqua – the message should be from parents to teens and youngsters that never lighting up is the best way to put out cigarettes.

According to an article from Bloomberg Press, Altria’s Philip Morris USA unit must pay $8 million in punitive and compensative damages to Stuart Hess’s family for the 55 year old man’s death in 1997. Hess was an avid smoker beginning at the age of 15, which resulted in lung cancer and ending his life far too early. The report also states that this verdict is the first of 8,000 individual Florida tobacco litigation cases to go to trial.

Hess’s wife, Elaine, wiped away tears in the courthouse hallway after jurors made their decision. She said she hoped the verdict would send a message to tobacco companies saying, “I just hope that all the thousands of other suffering families will also obtain similar justice.” The report states that anti-smoking activists hailed the verdict as a first step in winning tolerable compensation for consumers injured by tobacco products.

As you can see, tobacco lawsuits are very complex, with Florida’s high court ruling that the smokers involved in the lawsuit couldn’t sue as a group. The individual smokers and their families were given an extended amount of time to sue based on factual findings that cigarettes are addictive and cause cancer.

Throughout the following months and within the next year, thousands of people who have suffered life-long effects of tobacco use, as well as families who have lost loved ones due to lung cancer, will be fighting their cases in court.

Our hearts go out to all those who have been victims of tobacco addiction and we offer our experience as Florida cigarette addiction attorneys to all of those who have either themselves become addicted or suffered through the loss of a loved one due to the extended use and addiction of cigarettes. The Jacksonville tobacco lawyers of Farah and Farah are already handling hundreds of cigarette lawsuits in Jacksonville and locations throughout Florida. We are prepared to provide up-to-date information on these issues. Please contact Farah and Farah at 1.800.533.3555.

The state of Florida is spending about $58 million to get you to kick the habit. Any Floridian who qualifies can receive free nicotine patches, gum and lozenges.   Call 1-877-822-6669 to make contact with  ”Tobacco Free Florida.” 

Besides the nicotine patches you can go on their web site http://www.tobaccofreeflorida.com/ to join a service to help you quit.  It’s called Qwitter and tracks your cigarette use. 

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Thousands of Floridians who have been injured by cigarettes will be eligible to share in a $600 million trust fund set up to compensate smokers for illness.

A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge ruled Friday that Engle Trust Fund set up by tobacco companies will be distributed to thousands, including clients of Farah and Farah and Wilner Block. The distribution will be equally divided rather than based on the severity of illness. Judge David C. Miller said individual trials would take too much time. 

Smokers must have been diagnosed with a smoking-related illnesses before November 21, 1996. A previous jury ruling established those injuries include lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema.

Friday’s ruling was the latest moving the Engle case one step closer to resolving the 14 years of litigation. Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle headed a class-action lawsuit filed in 1994 against Big Tobacco. It appeared to be over in 2000 when a jury ruled in a landmark $145 billion against R. J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and three other major tobacco firms.

But that verdict was overturned in 2006. Smokers would have to file individual cases while at the same time the justices let stand the jury’s findings that cigarettes are unreasonably dangerous, that cigarettes cause numerous damages, that nicotine is addictive, that Big Tobacco acted negligently and that tobacco companies intentionally concealed information about the impact of cigarettes on smokers’ health.  

Knowing they would be on the hook for some damages, the tobacco companies put up $700 million to benefit smokers. That has turned to $800 million with interest. On Friday the judge ruled that Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, the attorneys who brought the Engle case, should receive more than $200 million for their work over the 15 years.

Farah and Farah has joined forces to fight Big Tobacco and bring this litigation to an end.  Norwood “Woody” Wilner was the first attorney in the country to bring a successful case against the tobacco companies and to set much of the precedent that allowed for later favorable rulings.

June 16th is the deadline for the Engle Trust Fund applications to be into our firms.  Please visit our Web site http://tobaccoflorida.com/ to fill out your application including your name, address and the date of the smoking-related illness. 

We are committed to help smokers and their survivors access to this fund. You can learn more about the history of the Engle case from the tobacco litigation page on our web site or call our downtown Jacksonville offices to consult with an experienced tobacco litigation attorney before the deadline passes.