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• Mississippi court rules against widow in tobacco lawsuit appeal 

The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a jury's rejection of a $102 million wrongful death suit against a tobacco company.

The lawsuit was filed by Kay Nunnally, whose husband, a longtime smoker, died of lung cancer. A DeSoto County jury ruled for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in 2000.

Nunnally, of Southaven, had claimed 37-year-old Joseph Lee Nunnally developed cancer in 1987 after smoking cigarettes from the time he was a child. . . .

In her appeal, Kay Nunnally argued that the jury ignored evidence she presented about the risks of cigarettes and smoking, including the warnings that are required by law to be on advertisements and packaging.

Presiding Justice Jim Smith, writing in the court's 6-1 decision, said Reynolds put on evidence that it did research to provide the safest, most consumer-desirable cigarette possible. . . .

Justice Chuck Easley, in the lone dissent, said the Frank Statement was important to the case.

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• Verdict in tobacco lawsuit appealed 

The state Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to overturn a 2000 DeSoto County Circuit Court jury decision favoring a tobacco company in a wrongful death lawsuit filed 13 years ago by the family of a deceased smoker.

The jury denied a $102 million lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds tobacco company by the widow of Southaven resident Joseph Lee Nunnally, who died in 1989 of lung cancer. He started smoking when he was 8 years old.

Kay Nunnally's attorney, Charles Merkel of Clarksdale, argued Tuesday before a three-judge panel of the high court that the verdict should be reversed because then-Circuit Judge George Carlson erred in not allowing the plaintiff to present evidence of negligence by the tobacco company. Also, Merkle said the jury shouldn't have received an instruction that they had to find the product to be both defective and unreasonably dangerous.

"Are you asking us to reverse our colleague?" Justice Chuck McRae asked Merkle, referring to Carlson who is now a state Supreme Court justice.

Merkle replied, "We asked the court to find that he erred in his premise." . .

Merkle said the two-prong test of proving the product to be defective and unreasonably dangerous was too much to overcome in the trial.

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• High court to hear tobacco suit appeal 

The state Supreme Court will hear arguments Nov. 19 in an appeal of a jury's rejection of a $102 million wrongful death suit filed against a tobacco company.

The lawsuit was filed by Kay Nunnally, whose husband, a longtime smoker, died of lung cancer. A DeSoto County jury ruled for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in July 2000.

Nunnally, of Southaven, had claimed 37-year-old Joseph Lee Nunnally developed cancer in 1987 after smoking cigarettes from the time he was a child. . .

A defense expert witness, George Seiden of Shreveport, La., a psychiatrist, had testified that his experience and review of Nunnally's medical records led him to believe that Nunnally knew the hazards of smoking and could have stopped smoking if he had felt motivated to do so.

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AT&T pays/Tobacco case moves forward 

Jury selection is underway in Hernando in a wrongful death case where smoking is alleged to have been the cause of a fatal illness.

The case involves the 1989 death of 37-year old Joseph Lee Nunnally who developed lung cancer in 1987.

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• Smoker's Widow's Suit Ready For Trial 

His wife decided to sue the tobacco company she blames for her husband's death.

But Kay Nunnally, a soccer mom who works at Southaven Supply Co., says she's not looking to get rich.

"I'm just trying to make things right,'' she said. "I never looked at this as a lottery ticket.

Jury selection begins Friday at the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando in her lawsuit against the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. It is the first such wrongful death suit to reach trial in DeSoto.

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• Smoking case set for trial 

A lawsuit accusing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. of selling a harmful product is set to go to trial in Hernando in June after a nearly eight-year delay.

Kay T. Nunnally filed a complaint in 1992 against the tobacco company and Basic Foods Inc., which sells cigarettes.

Joseph Lee Nunnally died in 1989 after a short battle with lung cancer. He was 37 and the father of four children.

The trial is scheduled for June 26 at the DeSoto County Courthouse.

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