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Man's survivors lose suit against tobacco firm 

The family's lawyer, Denman Heard, who has gained a sizable reputation as an asbestos litigator, said he respected the jury's decision and was considering whether to appeal. . .

Heard praised Jeannie Grinnell for following her late husband's dying request to continue with the lawsuit. "She is one of the most courageous and brave women I have known," he said. "She did this because her husband believed there is an entire generation of Americans deceived by tobacco companies." . .

Texas Supreme Court in 1997 agreed partially with Floyd and partially with the appeals court.

Writing for the 6-2 majority, then-Justice John Cornyn found that reports of the dangers of smoking had been well-known since the 19th century.

"We conclude that the general health dangers attributable to cigarettes were commonly known as a matter of law by the community when Grinnell began smoking," Cornyn wrote, agreeing with Floyd's ruling.

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Jury Finds for Brown & Williamson 

The plaintiffs had sought $10 million in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages, according to Salomon Smith Barney tobacco industry analyst Martin Feldman.

Ten jurors voted in favor of the defendants and two voted in favor of the plaintiff, Feldman said.

The court victory is the sixth straight win for the tobacco company since Jan. 1, Brown & Williamson noted in a press release.

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Brown & Williamson Trial in Texas Goes to Jury (Update2) 

A Texas jury will resume deliberating tomorrow morning in a lawsuit that seeks to hold Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. responsible for a longtime smoker's death. The jury began deliberations late this afternoon before recessing for the evening.

During closing arguments in the first individual smoker's suit against cigarette makers to go to trial in Texas, a lawyer for the deceased smoker's relatives said tobacco companies ``treated human life as just the price of doing business.''

``They knew that cigarettes caused lung cancer, they knew the danger of addiction,'' attorney Denman Heard told jurors in the Beaumont, Texas, courtoom. ``Every time they had a chance to share the truth with the American people, they lied.''

Brown & Williamson lawyers said Wiley Grinnell chose to smoke despite knowing that cigarettes were addictive and could cause lung cancer.

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• Brown & Williamson Should Pay for Smoker's Death, Lawyers Say 

rown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. should be held responsible for a longtime smoker's death, his lawyers told a state court jury today in the first individual suit against cigarette makers to go to trial in Texas.

In closing arguments in Beaumont, Texas, a lawyer for the deceased smoker's relatives said tobacco companies ``treated human life as just the price of doing business.''

``They knew that cigarettes caused lung cancer, they knew the danger of addiction,'' attorney Denman Heard told jurors. ``Every time they had a chance to share the truth with the American people, they lied.''

Brown & Williamson attorneys are scheduled to make closing arguments after a lunch break.

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• Dateline Texas: Tobacco trial brings chaos to courthouse 

It was a different kind of jury panel. Last week more than 200 prospective jurors, about six times the usual number, were called to state District Judge Donald Floyd's court.

There were so many people it created a parking crunch in the Jefferson County Courthouse parking lots. . .

Fourteen jurors and alternates are needed for the case. The judge moved the jury pool to a large auditorium one floor below his small courtroom.

"This doesn't even feel like a courtroom," Floyd said. For one thing, the prospective jurors sometimes broke out in applause -- maybe inspired by the theaterlike setting.

Or maybe it was because Floyd announced a coffee break or told them they could go home for the day.

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• Brown & Williamson Faces Individual Texas Smoker Suit (Update1) 

A jury will soon hear claims that Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. should be held responsible for the 1986 death of a long-time Texas smoker.

Lawyers began choosing a jury this week in state court in Beaumont, Texas, where the family of deceased smoker Wiley Grinnell seeks to hold Brown & Williamson, a unit of U.K.-based British American Tobacco Plc., responsible for his death. Opening statements are expected to begin early next week.

As the first known individual suit against the tobacco industry to go to trial in Texas, the Grinnell case could serve as a warning of how the industry will fare in the state's courts, said David Crump, a University of Houston law professor. . .

While cigarette makers have consistently told juries that the smokers should be held responsible for their own actions, Edward Sweda, a senior attorney at the Tobacco Products Liability Project, an anti-smoking group at Northeastern University's School of Law, said the tobacco industry needs to take responsibility for their own actions as well.

``This is about whether the plaintiffs will be successful getting the jury's attention (to) what was happening at the time (Grinnell) started smoking,'' Sweda said.

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• Tobacco trial verdict may set standard in Texas 

Tobacco's addictive nature will be on trial soon in a case that experts believe may set the standards for how lawsuits against tobacco companies are handled in Texas state courts.

Wiley Grinnell, a Beaumont furniture salesman who started smoking Lucky Strikes at age 19, sued the American Tobacco Co. in 1985 after being diagnosed with lung cancer. In less than a year, he was dead at age 53.

Now his widow and other family members are still waiting for resolution of his case.

What the jury decides in Beaumont may have a far bigger influence than just deciding if Grinnell's family is due any damages. "It will be the bellwether of how they settle other cases," predicted University of Houston law Professor David Crump, a civil litigation specialist.

The case has already gone to the Texas Supreme Court and back, and may well go there again. . .

It may be a long trial. Each side has more than 3,000 exhibits, and Floyd predicted that testimony will take at least a month.

Just picking a jury will be extraordinary. Last week, Floyd called a panel of 200 prospective jurors -- almost six times as many as are called for the usual civil trial in state district court. Floyd had to impanel the pool of jurors in an auditorium of the . .

Before he died, Grinnell testified in a deposition that he would have never started smoking if he had known how hard it would be for him to quit.

He began smoking, his original lawsuit said, because he associated cigarette smoking with "youth, sports, love, success, health, glamour and the wholesome outdoors." The cigarette company, he said, "failed to communicate the real symbols of smoking as being addictive."

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