Tobacco.org

City backs off park smoking ban ($$) 

Key West will not consider a smoking ban in city parks with a heavy fine for violators, as the City Commission's agenda showed Wednesday.

Proposed new rules for the parks will, however, include a request that visitors not smoke tobacco products, in an effort to protect the health of others and the island's aquatic environment.

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Cigarette littering fine considered  

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH - What began as a workshop discussion to try to find ways to limit or ban smoking in public parks and on the beach, ended up with a likely crackdown on people who improperly dispose of their cigarette butts.

If a proposed ordinance is passed by the Indian Rocks Beach City Commission in January, smokers could face a $500 fine if they litter the beach with their cigarette butts.

Commissioner Terry Hamilton-Wollin met with a number of citizens who favor a smoke-free environment in the parks and beaches in Indian Rocks Beach and she came away convinced that something had to be done. So in a special hour-long workshop Dec. 13, the commission heard a presentation from health professionals and an anti-smoking group as to the hazards of secondhand smoke in public places.

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Video of Larkin v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco - Trial - 01/23/12  

Session links become active around 15 minutes before scheduled start time - more...

Session Start Time Duration

Larkin v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco 2/2/12 PM (PHASE 2) 01:00 PM EST

Larkin v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco 2/01/12 (VERDICT) 05:00 PM EST

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• Opening Statements Begin In Larkin v. RJ Reynolds 

In Dade County Courthouse's first Engle progeny trial of the year, jurors heard opening statements in the Larkin v. RJ Reynolds trial in front of Judge Valerie Manno-Schurr. By the end of the first day, a theme developed in the courtroom around the nature of choices, made both by individuals who smoke cigarettes, and the companies that manufacture them.

Born in 1944, Carole Larkin was a daily smoker by the age of nineteen . . .

At the close of his opening statement, Gerson asked jurors to consider "the choices that this ordinary housewife made over her lifetime compared to the choices that this large corporation that conspired with other companies to conceal the truth made just so they could make more money".

"Any smoker can quit. Three thousand quit every day" claimed defense attorney Anthony Upshaw, of McDermott Will & Emery. In addition, Upshaw contends Larkin was not a member of the Engle class since she quit in 1988, prior to the class's 1990 beginning and that she was not addicted to nicotine. In one of the more memorable lines regarding nicotine addiction, Upshaw declared "each time she decided to quit smoking she was successful". Larkin stopped smoking once for a year, resumed, then ultimately quit for good in 1988.

Picking up on the theme of personal responsibility and choice introduced by plaintiff's counsel, Upshaw asked jurors: "Mrs. Larkin accepts some responsibility for her smoking, but only some, right? Nobody but Carole Larkin could have made the choice, not ten percent, not twenty percent. A hundred percent, only she could have made that choice".

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On Petitions for a Writ of Certiorari to the Florida First District Court of Appeal (PDF) 

The Campbell and Martin cases, which involve an even more extreme departure from traditional judicial procedures than did Scott, provide the Court with a more focused opportunity to consider the extent to which the Due Process Clause limits the authority of States to significantly alter those procedures in the name of increased judicial efficiency. Given the increasing frequency with which state courts have been willing to jettison traditional procedural rules in the name of litigation efficiency in the class action context, review of the decisions below is particularly warranted.

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COURT URGED TO OVERTURN DECISION BARRING PRODUCT LIABILITY DEFENSES (PDF) 

The Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) yesterday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review (and ultimately overturn) a Florida state court decision that prevents the nation’s major cigarette manufacturers from defending themselves against charges that they acted wrongfully in marketing their products. WLF charged that the Florida court are conducting product liability lawsuits in a manner that violates the federal constitutional due process rights of defendants.

In a brief filed in support of two petitions for review filed with the Supreme Court – Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Campbell and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Martin – WLF argued that the U.S. Constitution requires state courts to apply their procedural rules in a consistent manner. If those rules would permit other defendants to defend themselves fully against tort claims, then Florida must afford those same procedural protections to tobacco companies, WLF argued.

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Case Detail: Philip Morris USA, Inc. v. Campbell 

Case Date:

1/17/2012

Project Name:

Civil Justice Reform

On January 17, 2012, WLF filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, urging it to review a Florida state court decision that prevents the nation's major cigarette manufacturers from defending themselves against charges that they acted wrongfully in marketing their products. WLF charged that the Florida court are conducting product liability lawsuits in a manner that violates the federal constitutional due process rights of defendants.

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• Plaintiffs Win Again in Engle Progeny Tobacco Cases 

On January 26, 2012, an Escambia County jury awarded Erskin Donal Ward $2.7 million against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and Liggett Group, LLC Philip Morris USA, Inc., in case number 2008-CA-2135, filed in the First Judicial Circuit, in Escambia County, Florida.

The lawsuit filed in the case alleged that Erskin Ward's wife, Mattie Emma Ward, died of emphysema after nearly 50 years of smoking cigarettes made by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and Liggett Group, LLC Philip Morris USA, Inc.

Erskin Ward's attorney, James Gustafson said that the jury verdict included $1.7 million in punitive damages against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. . . .

"The jury's work and patience in this trial showed," Gustafson said. "The verdict is not only a tribute to a woman who was a treasure to Pensacola and the special education community, but to the hard work the jury did to understand how much things have changed in the past 50 years--and the need to punish R.J. Reynolds for its intentional outrages, what they did to a generation of Americans, including hawking cigarettes to children.'

"Mrs. Ward is another tragic example of the best among us, someone who started smoking as a child decades before the warnings, and was killed by addiction to nicotine," said Gustafson.

Sources at the Searcy Denney law firm said that this verdict marks eight successive plaintiff's verdicts in Engle progeny tobacco suits

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Cleared Broward cigarette smuggling defendant: 'My life has been turned upside down' 

Arturo Marrero, a Broward real estate developer, was acquitted by a federal judge Monday of conspiring to smuggle cigarettes from Miami to Europe without paying millions of dollars in customs duties.

Marrero, who had two jury trials in Miami federal court, called his experience a "legal nightmare." One day after his uncommon victory, Marrero said he believes the U.S. attorney's office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement tried to railroad him.

"How the government assumed that I was a co-conspirator is beyond me," Marrero, 48, of Davie, said in a statement. "The sad part is that they will go on with their lives as if nothing happened, and my life has been turned upside down because the U.S. government made a mistake."

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MINOR: Cigarette, anyone? Think twice  

For the last three weeks my whole world has been the inside of a courtroom, the Circuit Court of Highlands County. I was impaneled on a jury for a wrongful death case . . . .

As recently as 1999, tobacco company CEOs stood before the U.S. Congress and swore under oath that they did not believe cigarettes cause lung cancer, nor that they are addicting. But their own company documents, subpoenaed by Congress, proved the opposite.

As a jury, we deliberated a long time about fault and about damages. To reach an agreement, we all had to make some concessions. . . .

When it was all over, I was relieved. Yet when I got home that final day, I sat down and cried for four hours straight. At first I thought it was just the release of stress, but now I'm not so sure. I know I cried for the lady who died, and for her children and grandchildren who miss her. She could easily have lived 15 to 20 years longer than she did.

I also cried for all the mothers and dads around the world who still smoke and want to quit but find themselves addicted, lifetime victims of an industry that doesn't care.

I also cried for my own brother who has smoked all his life and now suffers from severe heart disease, COPD, and recurring pneumonia. It simply did not have to be this way.

Finally, I cried for the tobacco company executives and scientists, and their lawyers, who continue to make a lucrative living off the pain, suffering, and death of their fellow Americans. There is no justification for such callous, mercenary selfishness.

Shame on them all.

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When it was all over, I was relieved. Yet when I got home that final day, I sat down and cried for four hours straight. At first I thought it was just the release of stress, but now I'm not so sure. I know I cried for the lady who died, and for her children and grandchildren . . . I also cried for all the mothers and dads around the world who still smoke and want to quit . . . I also cried for my own brother who has smoked all his life and now suffers from severe heart disease, COPD, and recurring pneumonia. . . . Finally, I cried for the tobacco company executives and scientists, and their lawyers, who continue to make a lucrative living off the pain, suffering, and death of their fellow Americans. There is no justification for such callous, mercenary selfishness. Shame on them all.
Hallgren juror Joyce Minor.

Verdict favors smoker estate 

On Tuesday evening, a Highlands County jury returned a $2 million verdict for the Hallgren family in a lawsuit against Phillip Morris and R.J. Reynolds tobacco companies.

The trial continued Wednesday and Thursday, said Clerk of Courts Bob Germaine, with the jury awarding $750,000 in punitive damages. . . .

"The main focus is on Florida," said Edward Sweda Jr., senior attorney with the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University Law School in Boston.

Juries have found for the plaintiffs in two-thirds of the cases. "There is a large focus on the smoker's conduct," Sweda said. "Either they didn't listen to or follow the advice of their doctors. If the juries primarily focus on that, a defense verdict results.". . .

The Sebring jury found that Claire Hallgren was addicted to cigarettes, which was the legal cause of her lung cancer and death. Both Phillips Morris and R.J. Reynolds were negligent, and the jury found that cigarettes were defective and unreasonably dangerous.

The defendants concealed or omitted material information about the health effects or addictive nature of smoking, the jury found.

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EDITORIAL: Butt out!  

Miami-Dade County is asking politely: Please don’t smoke in the park. After all, the air is fresh, kids are running and jumping — and panting from all the exercise — and, most important, secondhand smoke can be a killer. . . .

According to the American Heart Association, being subjected to secondhand smoke for as few as 20 minutes increases one’s risk of developing coronary disease. Hang around smokers every day, and the risk can increase by up to 30 percent. In addition, the 2010 Surgeon General’s report found that there is no safe level of secondhand smoke, which sends more than 70 chemicals that can cause cancer wafting into a nonsmoker’s lungs.

Why impose that on anyone, especially children?

Throw in, too, poor modeling — given what’s known, smoking’s not the best behavior to which to expose kids, now is it?

All this should be more than enough incentive to curb the craving for a while. If anyone should ask you to extinguish the smoke, just do it. It’s the right thing.

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• RJ Reynolds And Phillip Morris To Pay $2.5 Million In Damages 

SEBRING, FL - The first major tobacco lawsuit of 2012 ended yesterday with RJ Reynolds (NYSE: RAI) and Philip Morris (NYSE: PM) being ordered to pay a combined $2.5 million in damages to a deceased smoker's surviving husband.

Following nearly three-weeks of trial testimony a Highlands County jury found the two tobacco companies responsible for the smoking-related lung cancer of Theo Hallgren's late wife, Claire Hallgren.

After determining Claire Hallgren was 50% responsible for her addiction and awarding $2 million to Theo Hallgren in compensatory damages, the jury went on to order RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris to pay $750,000 each in punitive damages. . . .

During closing arguments attorney T. Hardee Bass, of the firm Searcy Denny, told jurors in light of the tobacco company's current billion-dollar profits, they needed to send a strong message with a large verdict. "That's what this morning is about, punishment," said Bass. "Punishment for the harm they caused to Claire Hallgren."

Representing Philip Morris, attorney William Geraghty of Shook Hardy Bacon told the jury the company had made massive, systemic changes since the 1950's, when tobacco products were marketed more aggressively. FDA regulation and Philip Morris' own practices meant they had already taken enough corrective action. Dal Burton of Womble Carlyle, representing RJ Reynolds, said his client had also eliminated practices from the "1930's and 40's that are today an anathema."

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• Valrico Dentist Heads to Court Over Neighbor's Cigar Smoke  

That all changed when the Twisted Cigar moved into the storefront next to Rahal's dental office in October.

Rahal said smoke from the combination cigar shop and smoking lounge has filtered into his dental office, making employees sick and eliciting complaints from patients.

"It's not just a cigar shop. It's a place where patrons come in and smoke. There are big-screen TVs for them to watch," said Rahal. "And now they've applied for a beer and wine license.

"Since they opened, we've been losing existing patients, and there's no way to gauge how many new patients we've lost because of this," Rahal said. "We had a women just this morning complain. She said she couldn't stand the smell."

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R. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY v. EARLINE ALEXANDER (PDF) 

PER CURIAM.

AFFIRMED. See R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Martin, 53 So. 3d 1060 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011).

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