Jump to full article: Kansas City (MO) Star, 2006-08-29
Author: DAN MARGOLIES Columnist
Intro: In November 2003, a Jackson County awarded Thompson damages of $1.5 million and his wife $500,000. But because the jury found Thompson 50 percent at fault, the damages were halved, resulting in a total award of $1 million.
Philip Morris and Brown & Williamson appealed, and last week, in a 32-page opinion written by Judge Victor Howard, the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City affirmed the verdict.
The decision "represents a complete rejection of the tobacco companies' position asserted in cases not only in Missouri but all over the country," said Independence lawyer Ken McClain of Humphrey Farrington & McClain, who tried the case. (Gregory Leyh of Gregory Leyh PC wrote Thompson's appellate brief.) "It is a landmark ruling on matters of critical importance to those who have been lied to for decades by the tobacco companies."
The tobacco companies appealed on numerous grounds, but two were particularly notable. One was their argument that the mere fact that a product may be dangerous is not enough to establish a product defect claim. . . .
The appeals court also rejected the tobacco companies' argument that common knowledge of the dangers of smoking exempted them from a duty to warn. . . .
The Thompson case is the first of some 20 smoker's liability cases in Jackson County to be heard on appeal.
A second appeal, in Smith v. Brown & Williamson, is scheduled to be heard in September. In that case, $22 million was awarded to the plaintiffs.
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