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• California Jury Gives Green Light to Product Liability Lawsuit Against Philip Morris 

A California jury today ruled that a product liability lawsuit filed in July 2001 against tobacco giant Philip Morris on behalf of Bruce Coolidge, a former truck driver who smoked Marlboro cigarettes from age 12 until his July 2000 diagnosis of small cell lung cancer, can proceed. The jury ruled that the lawsuit, which was filed on July 11, 2001, was filed within the then-operative one-year statute of limitations following the July 17, 2000 diagnosis of lung cancer. From April 2000 until July 17, 2000, Mr. Coolidge's doctors had given him a diagnosis of pneumonia. . . .

The trial, which began in Riverside, California on February 7, 2005, was bifurcated by the trial judge with the first phase being a ruling on Philip Morris' motion for summary judgment on the grounds that the lawsuit was not filed within the statute of limitations because Mr. Coolidge should have known in April 2000 that his illness was caused by the company's Marlboro cigarettes.

The trial will next proceed to the second phase, in which the jury will consider the company's liability for Mr. Coolidge's illness. . . .

Edward L. Sweda, Jr., Senior Attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project (TPLP) at Northeastern University School of law in Boston (see http://tplp.org) was not surprised by Philip Morris' scorched-earth policy of trying to wear down their litigation opponents, including people who, like Bruce Coolidge, are suffering from grave illnesses such as lung cancer. "Tobacco companies have consistently used every means available to them to avoid being held accountable in a court of law for their long history of corporate wrongdoing."

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