Plaintiff's family awaits resolution of 1985 case
Jump to full article: Houston (TX) Chronicle, 2001-01-28
Author: RICHARD STEWART
Intro: Tobacco's addictive nature will be on trial soon in a case that experts believe may set the standards for how lawsuits against tobacco companies are handled in Texas state courts.
Wiley Grinnell, a Beaumont furniture salesman who started smoking Lucky Strikes at age 19, sued the American Tobacco Co. in 1985 after being diagnosed with lung cancer. In less than a year, he was dead at age 53.
Now his widow and other family members are still waiting for resolution of his case.
What the jury decides in Beaumont may have a far bigger influence than just deciding if Grinnell's family is due any damages. "It will be the bellwether of how they settle other cases," predicted University of Houston law Professor David Crump, a civil litigation specialist.
The case has already gone to the Texas Supreme Court and back, and may well go there again. . .
It may be a long trial. Each side has more than 3,000 exhibits, and Floyd predicted that testimony will take at least a month.
Just picking a jury will be extraordinary. Last week, Floyd called a panel of 200 prospective jurors -- almost six times as many as are called for the usual civil trial in state district court. Floyd had to impanel the pool of jurors in an auditorium of the
. .
Before he died, Grinnell testified in a deposition that he would have never started smoking if he had known how hard it would be for him to quit.
He began smoking, his original lawsuit said, because he associated cigarette smoking with "youth, sports, love, success, health, glamour and the wholesome outdoors." The cigarette company, he said, "failed to communicate the real symbols of smoking as being addictive."
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