Jump to full article: Palm Beach (FL) Post, 2010-07-21
Author: Andrew Marra Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Intro: To quit smoking, Margaret Piendle and her late husband tried every trick they could. They threw away ash trays, chewed gum, jammed toothpicks and straws in their mouths and munched on candy.
But decades passed and their efforts to quit failed again and again, Piendle told a jury today.
By the time her husband, Charles Piendle of Royal Palm Beach, finally kicked the habit for good he was 48 - and 7 years from death by lung cancer.
Margaret Piendle is now suing tobacco giants R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, alleging they are to blame for her husband's untimely death.
Her legal team must convince a jury that Charles Piendle was addicted to cigarettes and that cigarette makers' attempts to conceal the risks of smoking contributed to his addiction.
In sometimes-tearful testimony today, Piendle recalled her dead husband and their mutual struggles to quit smoking.
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