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Rejection of Class Certification in Tobacco 'Light' Case Marks Another Chapter ($$) 

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• Jury takes 90 minutes to absolve cigarette firm in Boca woman's death 

It took a Palm Beach County jury 90 minutes to decide Thursday that cigarette-maker Liggett wasn't responsible for the 2002 death of 72-year-old Boca Raton resident Leila Schwartz.

Her widower, Leonard Schwartz, 79, said he wanted Liggett, which for decades made the unfiltered Chesterfield brand that Leila smoked for 50 years, to be punished for their actions.

"I would've been happy to win money ... but more important was for [Liggett] to be liable for their lack of honesty," Schwartz said. "But the jury spoke and that's it."

Liggett attorney Aaron Marks argued that for years before her death, Leila Schwartz suffered myriad health issues, such as depression, high blood pressure and cholesterol, a painkiller dependency and heart disease. Two heart attacks and triple bypass surgery, Marks said, ultimately killed Mrs. Schwartz. Doctors didn't consider a cancerous lung tumor found two months before Leila Schwartz's death to be terminal, Marks told jurors.

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• N.C. cigarette-maker Liggett found not liable in smoker's death 

North Carolina cigarette-maker Liggett Group Inc. is not responsible for the death of a Boca Raton woman who smoked the company's unfiltered Chesterfield brand, a jury decided.

Leila Schwartz died in 2002 after smoking for 50 years, according to the lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court by her husband, Leonard Schwartz. She was 72.

It took a jury 90 minutes to decide Thursday that Liggett, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., was not liable.

"I would've been happy to win money ... but more important was for (Liggett) to be liable for their lack of honesty," Schwartz said. . . .

Liggett attorney Aaron Marks argued that Leila Schwartz suffered from numerous illnesses, including depression, high blood pressure and heart disease, and that two heart attacks and a triple bypass surgery caused her death.

Doctors didn't consider a cancerous lung tumor found two months before she died to be terminal, Marks said.

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• Jury to decide whether tobacco caused death 

As a teenager, Leila Schwartz began smoking cigarettes. Her brand of choice: the unfiltered, tar and nicotine-laden Chesterfield.

In 2002, the 72-year-old Boca Raton resident died.

A Palm Beach County jury will decide whether it was a result of lung cancer or heart disease and whether cigarette manufacturer Liggett is to blame.

In a trial that began Tuesday, Schwartz's husband of more than half a century, Leonard, is seeking to hold Liggett responsible, saying the company continued to produce Chesterfields despite knowing since about 1950 that they caused lung cancer. . . .

During the two-week trial, jurors will hear from doctors and experts. The plaintiffs will present testimony indicating studies published in the mid 1900s -- the same time Schwartz took up smoking -- linked cigarettes to lung cancer.

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