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Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
Jump to full article: Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley PA / Attorneys at Law, 2009-08-23
Author: Published by John Hopkins in Corporate Fraud, Defective Design, Mass Torts, Product Liability
Intro: Phillip Morris was found to be 38% at fault in the death of a smoker. This is the verdict delivered by a jury of good citizens on August 14, 2009, in Broward County, Florida.
Philip Morris and their lawyers, presumably, blame the judge and bad rulings made by him. Altria’s (Philip Morris’ owner) senior vice-president, Murray Garrick said that "Today's verdict is the result of a severely prejudicial trial plan. From beginning to end, this case was marked by legal rulings that should be reversed on appeal” Imagine a cigarette company denying their product had anything at all to do with the death of a smoker. Apparently, Philip Morris and Altria do not believe they shared even 38% of the blame. It seems that Big Tobacco is not going to ever accept responsibility for producing a product, which they have manipulated and adulterated to an extent that it really has little connection with original tobacco.
But why change your conduct if you are a multi-billion dollar empire that has produced a drug for 75 years that the FDA would never allow to be marketed today? Why change your concern for billions in profits over dead victims of your product? In 1958, The Tobacco Institute (a propaganda organization created by Big Tobacco) spewed a press release that, in part, said the following:
“It is the position of the Tobacco Institute (and so Big Tobacco) that the health of the American people is more important than dividends for the tobacco or any other industry.”
Apparently, that was as false as their claims for the last 70 years that cigarettes are not addictive and cigarettes do not cause lung cancer, COPD or any of the other dozens of diseases we know they cause. . . .
MR. SANDEFUR (Chairman and CEO of Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company). I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
MR. DONALD JOHNSTON (President and CEO of American Tobacco Company). And I, too, believe that nicotine is not addictive.
Imagine in 1994 the leaders of Big Tobacco did not want to take responsibility for the addiction of cigarettes and their manipulation of nicotine. Is it any wonder that when citizens hear evidence and find Big Tobacco responsible that they still cannot accept any responsibility?
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