Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
Florida's never-ending tobacco litigation continued not to end this week. A woman in South Florida who smoked Benson & Hedges for 25 years sued Philip Morris and was awarded $300 million.
Jump to full article »
A key issue in the case was Naugle's contention that Philip Morris concealed the fact that smoking is addictive and harmful.
Here's a question:
Does this judgment sound fair?(online surveys)
(The question closes at 9 a.m. ET on Saturday.)
Edward L. Sweda, Jr., Senior Attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project (TPLP) at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, was delighted with the jury’s verdict. “Clearly, this jury recognized the outrageous and reprehensible misconduct by Philip Morris and appropriately expressed its outrage by awarding $244,000,000 in punitive damages. This jury went far beyond a slap on the wrists and, instead, hit Philip Morris hard in order to punish the company for its extraordinary wrongdoing and to deter Philip Morris and other tobacco companies from committing similar wrongdoing in the future,” Sweda said.
Mark Gottlieb, TPLP’s Director, noted that “trial lawyers should be encouraged by the success that plaintiffs in Florida have been able to achieve when juries have had the chance to review the evidence of cigarette makers’ astonishing misconduct.”
Thursday’s verdict was the tenth verdict this year in Engle progeny cases in Florida. 8 out of those 10 verdicts have been for the plaintiffs
Philip Morris USA said today it will seek further review of a jury verdict awarding approximately $56 million in compensatory damages and $244 million in punitive damages.
The verdict came in the trial of a so-called Engle case following a 2006 Supreme Court decision that decertified a class action but allowed former class members to file individual lawsuits.
"From the beginning, this case was marked by a fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional trial plan that allowed the jury to rely on findings by a prior jury that have no connection to the plaintiff," said Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, speaking on behalf of Philip Morris USA.
"Today's verdict was the result of numerous erroneous rulings by the trial judge that allowed the jury to hear extensive evidence totally unrelated to the individual smoker
The sister of former Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle on Thursday won a $300 million jury verdict, the largest individual win in the Big Tobacco lawsuits in Florida.
Cindy Naugle, an office manager and bookkeeper at Layton's Garage in Fort Lauderdale, sued Philip Morris, owner of her cigarette brand of choice, Benson & Hedges.
Naugle was found only 10 percent at fault for taking up smoking when she was 20 years old. She quit 25 years later.
Her lawyers, Bob Kelley, Todd Falzone and Todd McPharlin of the Kelley Uustal law firm in Fort Lauderdale, argued that the cigarette maker committed fraud. They contended the tobacco company knew but concealed that smoking cigarettes is addictive and harmful to a smoker's health.
They said Naugle took up smoking in 1968, thinking it would make her look older and sophisticated. She chose the slim, long Benson & Hedges, marketed as sophisticated and feminine, they said.
Naugle, who is 60 now, has emphysema and labors to do the simplest tasks.
Money flowing into the state from the higher cigarette tax remain on target, with economists Wednesday sticking by earlier forecasts that a dollar per pack boost enacted this spring will pull in $850 million this year.
The cash-flow is strong even as cigarette sales fell with higher prices – particularly in North Florida counties adjacent to states with cheaper smokes.
“I think the legislation is working exactly as we’d hoped,” said Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, who sponsored the cigarette tax hike last spring. “Not only are we bringing in more revenue, we are reducing consumption.”
Waldman downplayed the impact of cross-border sales. But statistics compiled by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which tracks sales, show the biggest declines are in border counties – raising questions about whether people are smoking less, or just traveling out-of-state to get cigarettes.
A new tobacco tax is doing just what its proponents envisioned: reducing cigarette sales while fattening state coffers.
Cigarettes sales are down 27 percent in Florida during the last four months, thanks to a new $1-a-pack tax designed to balance the budget and cut down on smoking.
But despite the drop in sales, tobacco-tax collections in Florida are high and holding steady. That's because state economists accurately factored in the decrease in sales of smokes when they initially forecast the revenue from the surcharge that went into effect July 1.
The new tax, which helps fund Medicaid, will raise $881 million this year and $907 million the next, the economists forecast Thursday when they analyzed cigarette-sales data.
Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA, the largest U.S. tobacco company, lost a $300 million jury verdict in a lawsuit brought by a former smoker in Florida who suffers from emphysema.
The Broward Circuit Court jury yesterday awarded Cindy Naugle $56.6 million in compensatory damages and $244 million in punitive damages, said her lawyer, Robert W. Kelley, in a phone interview . . .
Altria, based in Richmond, Virginia, said it will seek “further review” of the verdict.
“From the beginning, this case was marked by a fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional trial plan that allowed the jury to rely on findings by a prior jury,” Murray Garnick, associate general counsel for Altria, said in a statement. The “verdict was the result of numerous erroneous rulings by the trial judge,” he said.
A Broward Circuit Court Jury returned a $300 million verdict against Philip Morris USA within hours of closing arguments this afternoon in favor of Cindy Naugle, the sister of Jim Naugle, a former mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Naugle, 61, who stopped smoking in 1993, smoked her first cigarette in 1968 when she was twenty years old because she thought they "made her look older." She told the jury that had she known then what the tobacco companies already knew, but had concealed, namely that nicotine is a highly-additive drug and cigarettes were considered by Philip Morris to be a "drug delivery device," she never would have taken that first puff. The jury assessed $56.6 million against Philip Morris for Naugle's past and future medical expenses as well as for her pain and suffering. It also assessed punitive damages in the amount of $244 million to punish the company for its misconduct. The jury also found Ms. Naugle was 10% responsible because of her decision to start smoking.
Ms. Naugle, who tried unsuccessfully to quit smoking for many years, now needs 24-hour oxygen and must travel in a wheelchair because the simple act of walking leaves her exhausted. "Cindy admitted her fault to the jury," said her attorney, Robert W. Kelley of the Fort Lauderdale law firm Kelley/Uustal. "But Philip Morris refused to accept any responsibility for her emphysema, even though she was an addicted customer for 25 years," he added. . . .
Kelley went on to say: "The cigarette companies managed to hide the truth about their product for a long time, but the truth is out now. And when the jury finally hears the truth about what these companies knew and when they knew it, they almost always side with the addicted smokers, most of whom started smoking as teenagers before there were any warning labels on cigarette packs." Kelley predicts the industry is in for a long series of losses because "most Americans are fed-up with corporate fraud and misconduct."
A South Florida jury on Thursday ordered Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million to a former smoker, agreeing that the tobacco company's negligence was the cause of her emphysema.
The award for Cindy Naugle, 61, is the largest to date among thousands of lawsuits filed in the state against tobacco companies.
"Cindy admitted her fault to the jury," her attorney, Robert W. Kelley, said in a statement. "But Philip Morris refused to accept any responsibility for her emphysema, even though she was an addicted customer for 25 years."
The award amounts to $56 million in compensatory and $244 million in punitive damages against Richmond, Virginia-based Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group Inc. The company said it will seek further review of the verdict by the Broward County jury.
"From the beginning, this case was marked by a fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional trial plan that allowed the jury to rely on findings by a prior jury that have no connection to the plaintiff," said Murray Garnick
Hospitals across southwest Florida are banning smoking completely. It's impacting more than just employees, like Adrienne Jones. She used to smoke a pack a day.
"Our lunch hour, smoke as many as you can instead of eating," admits Jones.
That attitude stopped a year ago when her 42-year old husband, also a smoker, suffered a heart attack.
"It was sudden," said Jones. "We didn't expect it, we didn't know he had a bad heart."
Health concerns are the main reason her employer, Lee Memorial Health System, is installing a tobacco ban on all their properties starting November 19.
The idea of lighting up in the parking lot of Marion County's two largest hospitals got snuffed out when Munroe Regional Medical Center and Ocala Health became tobacco-free campuses today.
The two hospitals, which chose today's Great American Smokeout to launch the ban, are now part of a consortium of more than 70 smoke-free Florida hospitals.
Both hospitals had tried for years to make the change, but a gentle push from a local doctor and management brought the project to fruition.
Dr. Dante Raju, who still remembers when doctors smoked inside hospitals, said he brought the issue to the fore.
A smoking ban begins today across Lee Memorial Health System.
As of November 19th, all forms of tobacco, including cigarettes and smokeless tobacco like chewing products and dip are prohibited on all properties owned and leased by Lee Memorial Health System.
During this year’s Great American Smokeout, many other local employers went tobacco free in order to promote a healthier environment
Danielle Lee won’t touch a cigarette, but she’ll pass a hookah pipe around a circle of friends any day.
And, according to a recent UF study, an increasing number of middle school- and high school-aged children share Lee’s fondness for the alternative form of tobacco.
The study, presented on Nov. 9 at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, found that 11 percent of Florida high school students and 4 percent of Florida middle school students had smoked hookah at least once.
Hookah burns charcoal and tobacco. Air is first drawn through the tobacco and then into the pipe, where it passes through water, which leads many smokers to believe hookah smoking is safer than cigarette or cigar smoking.
Maureen Miller, alcohol and other drug prevention specialist with UF’s GatorWell Health Promotion Services, was quick to point out hookah’s potentially dangerous effects.
“This isn’t harmless,” Miller said of hookah. “There certainly are some serious health concerns here.” The World Health Organization reported a typical 20- to 80-minute hookah session is the equivalent of smoking about 100 cigarettes and can deliver 11 times more carbon monoxide than a cigarette.
Cigarette sales have fallen sharply across Florida since a $1-a-pack tax increase took effect July 1, plunging nearly 50 percent in some counties.
Statewide, cigarette sales that regularly topped 100 million packs per month dropped to 73 million packs the month the tax became law. Since then, sales have inched back to around 78 million packs but remain well below prior levels.
To supporters, the sagging sales are evidence that the tax is meeting its public health objective: getting smokers to quit. Critics, however, say many people are simply buying their cigarettes elsewhere or switching to items that aren't subject to the higher tax, like small cigars.
The state charge on cigarettes is now $1.34, compared with the 34 cent tax that had been in place since 1990.
"It's working exactly the way it was designed to work. People are quitting," said Rep. Jim Waldman, D- Coconut Creek, a cigarette tax champion. "If I could, I'd raise it another dollar."