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92-year-old plaintiff awarded $5.3 million in tobacco case 

A 92-year-old plaintiff was awarded more than $5.3 million in damages after a jury decided his then-73-year-old wife died of lung cancer caused by years of cigarette smoking manufactured by Phillip Morris.

The trial in Broward County Circuit Court pitted Leon Barbanell, the husband of Shirley Barbanell, against Philip Morris USA Inc. In Phase 1 of this trial, the jury decided cigarettes caused Ms. Barbanell's lung cancer and eventual death in 1996. After a day of deliberations in Phase 2, the jury awarded Leon Barbanell 5.3 million dollars in damages.

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Tobacco Cases Resource Center  

In December 2006 the Florida Supreme Court breathed new life into a case against the tobacco industry that had worked its way through the courts since 1994. The case is known as the Engle case.

The supreme court upheld a landmark jury verdict finding Big Tobacco liable for smoking-related injuries and deaths, but the court said that smokers and their loved ones must bring individual suits in order to prove that smoking harmed them and to prove their individual damages. If you have a right to bring one of these "individual Engle suits" then Levin Papantonio may be able to help you.

In addition to such lawsuits being brought, Big Tobacco has already created a fund containing hundreds of millions of dollars that we believe should be paid out to those harmed by smoking in addition to any damages smokers and their loved ones might prove in their individual lawsuits against Big Tobacco.

Levin Papantonio is in the forefront of the fight against Big Tobacco.

What Exactly Does the Engle Case Mean?

After a year-long trial, the Engle jury found that:

* Cigarettes are unreasonably dangerous;

* Cigarettes cause numerous types of cancer;

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Pensacola Man Wins $7.8 Million Tobacco Verdict In Wife’s Death  

The Florida law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley (Searcy Denney) announced today that a jury has awarded $7,800,000 in compensatory damages to an Escambia County, Florida man following the death of his wife due to her addiction to nicotine contained in cigarettes.

Plaintiff Franklin D. Campbell, Sr., sued RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris USA, and Liggett Group on behalf of his late wife, Betty Jean Campbell, who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Pensacola at age 64. The trial was held in Circuit Court of First Judicial Circuit in Escambia County, Florida.

Following a month long trial, the jury found that the cigarette companies were legally responsible for Mrs. Campbell’s death. The jury also concluded that Mrs. Campbell was partially at fault, which will reduce the jury’s total verdict by about one half.

“Mr. Campbell expressed satisfaction and a deep sense of gratitude that the jury understood the power that nicotine had over his wife,” said David Sales, of the Searcy Denney law firm. Mrs. Campbell started smoking at age 15 in 1957 and was unable to quit smoking despite repeated attempts. She died in 2006

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HOPKINS: Big Tobacco Says It’s the Judge’s Fault  

Phillip Morris was found to be 38% at fault in the death of a smoker. This is the verdict delivered by a jury of good citizens on August 14, 2009, in Broward County, Florida.

Philip Morris and their lawyers, presumably, blame the judge and bad rulings made by him. Altria’s (Philip Morris’ owner) senior vice-president, Murray Garrick said that "Today's verdict is the result of a severely prejudicial trial plan. From beginning to end, this case was marked by legal rulings that should be reversed on appeal” Imagine a cigarette company denying their product had anything at all to do with the death of a smoker. Apparently, Philip Morris and Altria do not believe they shared even 38% of the blame. It seems that Big Tobacco is not going to ever accept responsibility for producing a product, which they have manipulated and adulterated to an extent that it really has little connection with original tobacco.

But why change your conduct if you are a multi-billion dollar empire that has produced a drug for 75 years that the FDA would never allow to be marketed today? Why change your concern for billions in profits over dead victims of your product? In 1958, The Tobacco Institute (a propaganda organization created by Big Tobacco) spewed a press release that, in part, said the following:

“It is the position of the Tobacco Institute (and so Big Tobacco) that the health of the American people is more important than dividends for the tobacco or any other industry.”

Apparently, that was as false as their claims for the last 70 years that cigarettes are not addictive and cigarettes do not cause lung cancer, COPD or any of the other dozens of diseases we know they cause. . . .

MR. SANDEFUR (Chairman and CEO of Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company). I believe that nicotine is not addictive.

MR. DONALD JOHNSTON (President and CEO of American Tobacco Company). And I, too, believe that nicotine is not addictive.

Imagine in 1994 the leaders of Big Tobacco did not want to take responsibility for the addiction of cigarettes and their manipulation of nicotine. Is it any wonder that when citizens hear evidence and find Big Tobacco responsible that they still cannot accept any responsibility?

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• 92-year-old tobacco plaintiff wins $5.3 million 

In the latest individual tobacco case to make it to trial in Florida, a six-person jury in Ft. Lauderdale awarded a 92-year-old man $5.3 million for his wife’s death from smoking.

The case was the eighth Engle case to make it to trial, and the sixth victory for the plaintiffs.

Shirley Barbanell died as a result of a smoking about two packs a day for more than 40 years, said her husband’s attorney, Steven J. Hammer, a partner at the Schlesinger Law Firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

The verdict – which does not include punitive damages – will be apportioned for fault. Jurors awarded 63.5 percent of the fault to Barbanell and 36.5 percent to Philip Morris, reducing the verdict to just under $2 million.

Shirley’s husband, Leon, turned 92 on the day he testified at trial about his wife. He told jurors he still talks to her every night since her death in 1996.

He also testified that he and Shirley watched in 1994 as tobacco executives testified before Congress, swearing that their product wasn’t addictive. Shirley had already been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by that point and turned to Leon and told him the executives were lying.

She added, “If anything happens to me, you have to sue them for what they did to me,” Hammer said. . . .

While Hammer acknowledged that his client’s wife bore some responsibility by continuing to smoke, he said the biggest obstacle at trial was presenting to the jury how differently smoking was treated during the majority of Shirley’s life as compared to today.

“Part of the difficulty with [the Engle cases] is that most people have been exposed to all the bad that tobacco does to the human body and are so removed from the time when everyone smoked,” he explained. “It’s difficult for a younger person to grasp that we live in a different world today and they think smokers have a larger share of the fault.”

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• Smokers, tobacco both winners in early Engle cases  

Fifteen years after a Miami Beach pediatrician suffering lung disease took on the tobacco giants, thousands of smokers' lawsuits are working their way through Florida courts and early results encourage both sides.

There have been nine verdicts in a massive block of litigation known in the industry as "Engle progeny," the offspring of a landmark 1994 lawsuit filed by Dr. Howard Engle that produced a $145 billion judgment against cigarette makers six years later.

It was the first class-action brought by sick smokers to make it to trial and the largest civil damage award in U.S. history. The judgment was overturned on appeal, but the multimillion dollar litigation industry spawned by that lawsuit could thrive for years in Florida.

The scorecard: seven judgments for smokers and their families, ranging from $600,000 to $30 million; two wins for tobacco firms.

"I think we've seen that these cases are winnable," lawyer Jonathan Gdanski said after winning a $1.9 million judgment last week in Broward County. . . .

Lawyers are scheduled on September 17 to make arguments before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on an important facet of the Engle litigation.

When the Florida Supreme Court rejected the $145 billion award in 2006, it left intact some critical findings of the trial court -- that smoking causes diseases, that nicotine is addictive, that cigarettes are defective and dangerous and that tobacco companies concealed the health effects of smoking.

The ruling was supposed to let smokers try their individual cases without having to prove those elements again, making it easier and cheaper for them to take on costly court battles.

A court in Jacksonville rejected the use of those findings, putting thousands of federal lawsuits on hold. An adverse ruling for smokers, while not binding on state courts, could have a chilling effect on those cases, lawyers say. . . .

But if the first results are an indication, the lawsuits are unlikely to impede profitability.

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Florida Man Wins Almost $2 Million In Case Vs Philip Morris USA 

A Florida man who said his wife died of lung cancer at 73 years old won just under $2 million in liability case against Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group Inc. (MO).

Schlesinger Law Firm, which represented Leon Barbanell, said its case drew on findings from the 1994 Engle class-action case, which the Florida Supreme Court decertified in 2006. However, the state's high court allowed class members to bring individual lawsuits relying on the findings. . . .

Altria Associate General Counsel Murray Garnick decried the ruling, saying in a prepared statement, "From beginning to end, this case was marked by legal rulings that should be reversed on appeal, including allowing this jury to rely almost exclusively on findings by a prior jury that have no direct connection with the plaintiff in this case."

The company also noted that the trial court previously ruled the plaintiff wasn't entitled to punitive damages because he couldn't prove his wife had relied on any alleged concealment.

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92-year-old plaintiff awarded $5.3 million in tobacco case 

A 92-year-old plaintiff was awarded more than $5.3 million in damages after a jury decided his then-73-year-old wife died of lung cancer caused by years of cigarette smoking manufactured by Phillip Morris.

The trial in Broward County Circuit Court pitted Leon Barbanell, the husband of Shirley Barbanell, against Philip Morris USA Inc. In Phase 1 of this trial, the jury decided cigarettes caused Ms. Barbanell's lung cancer and eventual death in 1996. After a day of deliberations in Phase 2, the jury awarded Leon Barbanell 5.3 million dollars in damages.

"Leon Barbanell is a patient man who has waited 13 years to get into the courtroom and present his case to a jury," said Steven J. Hammer, who tried the case with Jonathan Gdanski. Both are attorneys with the Schlesinger Law Firm of Fort Lauderdale, which represented Ms. Barbanell's estate.

"Since the day he and his wife watched on TV as tobacco executives told Congress in 1994 that their products weren't addictive or harmful, Shirley knew they were lying," Gdanski said. "Mr. Barbanell just wanted his day in court. Finally, he has prevailed." . . .

Philip Morris admitted no fault, even refuting whether Ms. Barbanell had lung cancer. The jury saw otherwise, concluding that Ms. Barbanell died of lung cancer caused by her addiction to nicotine in cigarettes. The jury assessed more than a third of the fault of Ms. Barbanell's death to the cigarette maker.

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• Philip Morris to Appeal $1.9 Million Award to Widower of Two-Pack-a-Day Smoker 

A Broward Circuit Court jury awarded $1.93 million Thursday to the husband of a woman who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for more than 40 years. The Florida jury deliberated for more than eight hours before handing down the verdict for Leon Barbanell, 92, who sued on behalf of his late wife, Shirley. The Marlboro smoker started smoking when she was 16 and died from lung cancer in 1996 at 73.

"No amount of money would bring back his wife," said the widower's attorney, Jonathan Gdanski of the Law Offices of Sheldon J. Schlesinger in Fort Lauderdale. "He's suffered tremendously as a result of her passing, and he's entitled to be compensated for her premature death."

Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services associate general counsel, issued a statement on behalf of Marlboro maker Philip Morris saying the verdict was "the result of a severely prejudicial trial plan" and the company will appeal.

Gdanski filed suit against Philip Morris, alleging the tobacco company negligently concealed facts about the dangers of smoking.

"Philip Morris denied she had lung cancer, denied she died from it and denied she was addicted to it," Gdanski said in a telephone interview

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• 92-year-old wins $1.9 million tobacco judgment over wife’s death  

A Florida jury awarded a 92-year-old man $1.9 million in compensatory damages for the death of his wife, a former two-pack-a-day Marlboro smoker who started when she was 16 and died in her 70s, attorneys said Thursday.

The jury of five women and one man deliberated for slightly more than a day before awarding a total of $5.3 million and finding Philip Morris USA 36.5 percent responsible for the lung cancer that plaintiffs said killed Leon Barbanell's wife, Shirley, attorneys for both sides said.

Shirley Barbanell herself was deemed 63.5 percent responsible.

Plaintiff's attorney Jonathan Gdanski said the jury found a design defect and a breach of warranty.

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• Video of Barbenell v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco - Trial - 07/27/09 

Description:Engle Progeny tobacco liability jury trial in Broward County Circuit Court's complex litigation division.

Trial - 07/27/09

Case Number:07-36737

Status:In Progress . . .

Judge:

Streitfeld, Jeffrey

Witnesses:

Expert

* Kyriakoudes, Prof. Louis Lay

* Barbanell, Mr. Leon

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• Philip Morris sees decline in health lawsuits  

Bullock was among the roughly four in 10 smokers who succeeded in getting a case against Henrico County-based Philip Morris USA into court and winning. Most lose on appeal, but Bullock's case still has legs, though not as the $28 billion case it once was.

Six years after her victory, and five after she succumbed to cancer, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in another Philip Morris case is sending the question of how much to punish the company back to a Los Angeles courtroom.

Not so long ago, it seemed as if the future of the tobacco industry and the tens of thousands it employs in Virginia and across the South could be decided by a multibillion-dollar verdict in any one of a score of court cases.

Now, it's not so clear.

"We continued to see a decline in the number of traditional smoking and health cases in 2008," said Murray Garnick, a senior vice president and associate general counsel at Altria Group, the Henrico County-based company that owns Philip Morris USA. "In fact, last year no [health-related] tobacco case was tried to verdict against any U.S. cigarette manufacturer." , , ,

The one kind of case that is growing alleges Philip Morris defrauded smokers by selling "low-tar" and "lights" cigarettes, fooling them into thinking they got something they weren't. These cases aren't seeking damages for harm to health; instead, they're alleging misrepresentation that caused smokers to pay too much for their cigarettes.

The number of these so-called "lights" cases, which has jumped from 17 at the end of last year to 27 as of May -- is still less than a third of the cases alleging damages to health. Courts have rejected many of the cases, and none has reached a final disposition in favor of the plaintiffs.

Philip Morris argues the cases don't make sense, since a claim for economic damages -- basically paying too much -- doesn't make sense if the prices of "lights" and other cigarettes were the same.

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Howard Engle, Tobacco Plaintiff, Dies  

Dr. Howard A. Engle, a Miami Beach pediatrician and a lifelong smoker who was the lead plaintiff in a landmark class-action suit against the tobacco industry, died at home on Wednesday. He was 89.

The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said his son, David Engle. Dr. Engle had smoked multiple packs of cigarettes daily since he was in college, his son said, and though he tried many times to quit, he never succeeded. He continued to smoke until his death. . . .

Among Dr. Engle's patients were the nine children of Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, whose practice, until the 1990s, was largely concerned with medical malpractice. But in 1991, they brought a class-action suit against tobacco companies on behalf of flight attendants who said they were harmed by secondhand smoke. (The case was settled in 1997 when the tobacco companies agreed to spend $300 million to study tobacco-related diseases.)

Mr. Rosenblatt said that Dr. Engle took a keen interest in the flight attendants' case, and that when the second class-action suit came along, they discussed that as well. Mr. Rosenblatt was interested in having Dr. Engle join the case because he was a prominent physician; because Dr. Engle was a smoker who wished to publicize the addictive nature of smoking, he agreed to become the lead plaintiff.

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Guest Book for Dr. Howard A. Engle 

WITH DEEPEST SYMPATHY. . . MAY G-D BLESS YOU DURING THIS TIME AND FIND COMFORT IN HIS LOVUNG MEMORIES. DR. HOWARD ENGLE WAS A WONDERFUL MAN AND HIGHLY RESPECTED. ALWAYS ENCOURAGIING TO TAKE CARE OF THE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES. HELD IN HIGHEST ESTEEM

~

DR. BRENDA KLEPACH ABRAMS,

PO BOX 403522 MIAMI BEACH, Florida

July 24, 2009

Thank you Dr. Engle for saving my son Anthony's life.You were a great doctor, a fine human being and a hoot to be around!

~

hector lombana,

coral gables, Florida

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• Pediatrician led anti-tobacco lawsuit 

Dr. Howard A. Engle, the veteran Miami Beach pediatrician who lent his name to a landmark class action suit against Big Tobacco, died Wednesday at home, said son David Engle. He was 89 and suffered from smoking-related respiratory disease and lymphoma.

He had been in hospice care since last fall -- when he finally quit smoking.

Decades before he signed on as lead plaintiff in what became known as the ``sick smokers of Florida'' suit, Engle was an institution in Miami Beach, where he treated multiple generations of many families before retiring from private practice in 1997.

He was also revered in Miami's black community for refusing to segregate his practice in the pre-civil rights era and for opening an office in Liberty City.

Famously gruff and forthright, Engle was nonetheless single-mindedly dedicated to his young patients.

``He treated all his patients as if they were his own kids,'' son David said. ``He'd stay up all night with a sick kid who was thought to be hopeless.''

Anyone who knew Howard Engle understood that he cared far more about his role as a doctor than as a litigant -- even though Engle, et al. v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al, marked a seismic shift in the legal battle against a once-invincible industry. . . .

``Goddammit! I'm an addict!'' he growled to a Herald reporter in 2006, lighting a Marlboro Medium as he gasped and coughed.

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Goddammit! I'm an addict!
Dr. Howard A. Engle, the veteran Miami Beach pediatrician who lent his name to the landmark class action suit, in 2006. The revered pediatrician died Wednesday at 89.