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Video of Ferlanti v. Liggett Group 

Description:10-day jury trial for a plaintiff who died at age 81 of lung cancer after suffering chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a result of cigarette smoking for over 55 years. The jury awarded the plaintiff $700,000 against Liggett Group (a part of Vector Tobacco and Vector Group).

This was the second "Engle" tobacco case to go to trial after a Broward County jury awarded nearly $8 million to the widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer in Hess v. RJ Reynolds. . . .

Type Start Date End Date Court Status Sessions

Trial 2009-02-23 2009-03-06 Judicial Complex Concluded - Verdict 20

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Vector Group Must Pay $700,000 in Death of Smoker (Update2)  

A Vector Group Ltd. unit must pay about $700,000 to the family of a retired trucking-company supervisor who died of lung cancer after smoking for 55 years, a Florida jury ruled.

A state court jury in Fort Lauderdale concluded today that Vector’s Liggett Group LLC is liable for Joseph Ferlanti’s death in 2004. Ferlanti, who smoked Chesterfield cigarettes made by Liggett, died at age 81, according to Todd McPharlin, the family’s lawyer.

Mrs. Ferlanti referred questions to McPharlin, who said, “This is an absolute victory. We’re very happy with the jury’s verdict. This is another example of the long history of the deception by the tobacco industry of the dangers of smoking. The jury recognized this.”

Leonard Feiwus, representing Liggett, would say only “we intend to take an appeal.”

Instead of telling consumers in the 1950s that its cigarettes were dangerous, Liggett officials chose “to put profits over lives,” McPharlin told jurors in closing arguments yesterday.

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• Miami-based Vector Group must pay $700k over smoker's death  

A Vector Group unit must pay about $700,000 to the family of a retired trucking-company supervisor who died of lung cancer after smoking for 55 years, a Florida jury ruled.

A state court jury in Fort Lauderdale concluded Friday that Vector's Liggett Group LLC is liable for Joseph Ferlanti's death in 2004.

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• Ferlanti v. Liggett Group - Trial  

Description: This is the second "Engle" tobacco case to go to trial after a Broward County jury awarded nearly $8 million to the widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer.

After a Miami jury awarded the largest class action verdict in history to smokers who claim major tobacco companies withheld critical information about the dangers of smoking, the Florida Supreme Court determined that each case had to be tried individually.

By presiding over the first two of nearly 8000 of these individual suits, Judge Streitfeld could set an important standard for how future "Engle litigation" will play out across the state Florida.

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