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Vector Group Must Pay $700,000 in Death of Smoker (Update2)  

A Vector Group Ltd. unit must pay about $700,000 to the family of a retired trucking-company supervisor who died of lung cancer after smoking for 55 years, a Florida jury ruled.

A state court jury in Fort Lauderdale concluded today that Vector’s Liggett Group LLC is liable for Joseph Ferlanti’s death in 2004. Ferlanti, who smoked Chesterfield cigarettes made by Liggett, died at age 81, according to Todd McPharlin, the family’s lawyer.

Mrs. Ferlanti referred questions to McPharlin, who said, “This is an absolute victory. We’re very happy with the jury’s verdict. This is another example of the long history of the deception by the tobacco industry of the dangers of smoking. The jury recognized this.”

Leonard Feiwus, representing Liggett, would say only “we intend to take an appeal.”

Instead of telling consumers in the 1950s that its cigarettes were dangerous, Liggett officials chose “to put profits over lives,” McPharlin told jurors in closing arguments yesterday.

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