Jump to full article: Kansas City (MO) Star, 2002-02-23
Author: DAN MARGOLIES / The Kansas City Star
Intro: "We're very pleased with the outcome," said Ken McClain, one of Burton's attorneys. "It's a case that easily might have gone against Mr. Burton had we not had a courageous jury willing to stare down the tobacco companies and say that their conduct was reprehensible and should be punished."
The federal jury of four smokers and four nonsmokers deliberated for a day and a half before finding R.J. Reynolds, maker of Camels, 99 percent at fault and American Tobacco, maker of Lucky Strikes, 1 percent at fault. American Tobacco, which is now Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., wasn't found liable for punitive damages. . .
The case, which Burton filed in May 1994 in federal court in Kansas City, Kan., also was noteworthy as one of the first in which tobacco company documents were ordered unsealed. Lungstrum rejected the defendants' arguments that the internal documents were protected by attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine and ordered them to be produced.
"He basically found that the companies were claiming privilege for ordinary business matters, simply because they passed them through the hands of lawyers," McClain said.
The documents touched on the companies' knowledge of the harmful effects of smoking and the addictive nature of nicotine years before they publicly acknowledged either. . .
Reynolds maintained that smoking had not been established as a risk factor for peripheral vascular disease until the early to mid 1970s. The jury had been asked to consider whether there was a failure to warn only prior to July 1, 1969.
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