Jump to full article: Reuters, 2009-08-20
Author: Jim Loney - Analysis
Intro: Fifteen years after a Miami Beach pediatrician suffering lung disease took on the tobacco giants, thousands of smokers' lawsuits are working their way through Florida courts and early results encourage both sides.
There have been nine verdicts in a massive block of litigation known in the industry as "Engle progeny," the offspring of a landmark 1994 lawsuit filed by Dr. Howard Engle that produced a $145 billion judgment against cigarette makers six years later.
It was the first class-action brought by sick smokers to make it to trial and the largest civil damage award in U.S. history. The judgment was overturned on appeal, but the multimillion dollar litigation industry spawned by that lawsuit could thrive for years in Florida.
The scorecard: seven judgments for smokers and their families, ranging from $600,000 to $30 million; two wins for tobacco firms.
"I think we've seen that these cases are winnable," lawyer Jonathan Gdanski said after winning a $1.9 million judgment last week in Broward County. . . .
Lawyers are scheduled on September 17 to make arguments before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on an important facet of the Engle litigation.
When the Florida Supreme Court rejected the $145 billion award in 2006, it left intact some critical findings of the trial court -- that smoking causes diseases, that nicotine is addictive, that cigarettes are defective and dangerous and that tobacco companies concealed the health effects of smoking.
The ruling was supposed to let smokers try their individual cases without having to prove those elements again, making it easier and cheaper for them to take on costly court battles.
A court in Jacksonville rejected the use of those findings, putting thousands of federal lawsuits on hold. An adverse ruling for smokers, while not binding on state courts, could have a chilling effect on those cases, lawyers say.
. . .
But if the first results are an indication, the lawsuits are unlikely to impede profitability.
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