Jump to full article: Galveston (TX) Daily News, 2004-08-19
Author: Scott E. Williams The Daily News
Intro: A state district court judge Wednesday afternoon separated a malpractice claim against a doctor from a liability claim against the nation's biggest tobacco companies.
The family of Veronica Crockett, who died of cancer at 52 in December 2002, has filed a lawsuit against tobacco companies, including Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds. . .
Naming the companies as a co-defendant of the doctor could have allowed the plaintiffs to keep the case in state court and out of federal jurisdiction, where plaintiffs' attorney Charles R. Houssiere III said many similar cases had been dismissed.
Those dismissals came under a law that bars lawsuits over serious health problems caused by smoking, but Houssiere said the state's supreme court should address whether that included addiction, which is not covered by name in the law.
Attorney John Strawn, representing the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, argued to 10th State District Court Judge David Garner that the tobacco and medical lawsuits should be held separately, since they dealt with different issues.
Garner agreed and separated the two defendants into two separate lawsuits
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