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• Former tobacco seller battled cigarette giant 

Joseph Battaglia met everything in life head on, his son says.

And that is why the former tobacco salesperson wasn't afraid to face down Canada's largest tobacco company in hopes of proving the Matinee Extra Mild cigarettes he smoked for six years were secretly designed to prevent him from quitting. . . .

Mr. Battaglia, 63, died Friday night after suffering a heart attack while he walked to a corner store near his apartment, his son Tony said.

His suit against Imperial Tobacco Canada was the first of its kind in Canada, and not about money, his son said. . . .

The case that catapulted Mr. Battaglia into prominence is still before the appeal courts, his son said. In 2001, a judge dismissed Mr. Battaglia's $6,000 small-claims suit, in which he claimed to have developed heart disease from smoking.

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