South Florida Tobacco Liability Lawyer, Florida Tobacco Liability Attorneys South Florida tobacco liability lawyer David I. Fuchs has over 17 years of experience in successfully representing smokers, their families and friends who have suffered a death or sustained and suffered other serious health problems because of cigarette smoking or the use of other tobacco products. Here is a brief overview of some of the key legal landmarks in efforts to call the tobacco industry to account in court.
1954 In the US, the first liability suit is brought against the industry--Liggett & Myers--by Pritchard. Dropped by the plaintiff 12 years later, setting the precedent for the industry's case-busting tactics of wearing plaintiffs out financially. In the US, Eva Cooper sues RJ Reynolds for her husband's death from lung cancer. Court rules that there was no evidence that smoking was to blame. Suit brought in the US against Philip Morris by John Ross, who lost his larynx to cancer.
1963"We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms." Seven US tobacco liability suits filed. Philip Morris wins Ross case. Brown & Williamson's (B&W) General counsel Addison Yeaman writes his infamous memo in anticipation of the forthcoming Surgeon General's report: "...nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms."
1964 17 US tobacco liability suits filed.
1976 Donna Shrimp sues New Jersey bell telephone for not protecting her from second-hand smoke. Wins.
1981 CBS Chicago news broadcaster Walter Jacobsen accused B&W on air of using sensational advertising to lure young people to smoke.
1983 In the US, Rose Cipollone, who had smoked since she was 17 in 1942 and had lost a lung to cancer had a suit filed for her by her husband. The following year Rose dies of lung cancer aged 58.
1985 B&W sues CBS and broadcaster Walter Jacobson for libel for the 1981 commentary. B&W won a $3.05 million verdict--the largest libel award ever paid by a news organisation.
1986 US Tobacco wins the Sean Marsee trial in Oklahoma, the only smokeless-tobacco liability case ever tried.
1988...a conspiracy by three tobacco companies that is "vast in scope, devious in its purpose, and devastating in its results." The Cipollone trial makes public a 1972 confidential report prepared by the Philip Morris research centre in Virginia entitled Motives and Incentives in Cigarette Smoking. It reads in part: "The cigarette should be conceived not as a product but as a package... Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose of nicotine...Smoke is beyond question the most optimized vehicle of nicotine, and the cigarette the most optimized dispenser of smoke." The judge presiding over the Cipollone trial says he had found evidence of a conspiracy by three tobacco companies that is "vast in scope, devious in its purpose, and devastating in its results." Liggett Group ordered to pay the widower of Rose Cipollone $400,000 in compensatory damages for the death of his wife. The first financial award in a liability suit against a tobacco firm. Later overturned on a technicality. Cipollone drop case due to lack of funds. Europe's first legal case against the tobacco industry is brought in Finland. The first proceeding is a case of product liability in which the plaintiff, Pentti Aho, claims damages for cancer, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. In Northern Ireland, a product liability case is filed against four tobacco firms by John Dean, who claimed that his Beurger's disease was caused by tobacco use.
1990 Mississippi court rules that cigarettes killed Nathan Horton, but does not awards damages, finding that both Horton and American Tobacco shared culpability.
1991 In the US, Mildred Wiley, a non-smoker dies of lung cancer aged 56. Her husband brings a suit that in 1995 is the first to establish environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as a workplace injury eligible for compensation.
1992 US Supreme Court rules that the 1965 warning label law does not shield tobacco companies from suits accusing them of deceiving the public about the health toll from smoking. The claim for product liability in the Finnish case of Pentti Aho is overturned by the Helsinki City Court, and was subsequently taken to the Appeal Court. In Australia, two separate ETS lawsuits are brought by individuals in Victoria: the first against a Melbourne shopping mall for failing to provide smoke-free facilities; the second against P&O Holidays and a travel agent for failing to guarantee smoke-free conditions on a holiday cruise. In Finland the world's first criminal case is brought against five representatives of the tobacco industry by four victims of smoking-related diseases. The charges concern misleading marketing, endangerment and assault.
1993 Espoo city court in Finland throws out the criminal case against tobacco industry representatives. The case goes to Appeal, and a verdict expected in 1998.
1994 In New Orleans, LA Castano case begins; a 60-attorney coalition files what will become the US's largest class-action lawsuit. Plaintiffs charge tobacco companies hid the facts about nicotine being addictive. Mississippi becomes the first state to sue tobacco companies to recoup health care costs associated with smoking. The State of West Virginia sues tobacco companies to recoup smokers' Medicaid costs. A British court awards 50 for the stress suffered by Terry Hurlstone from ETS when he visited his daughter in hospital. Previously, passive smoking claims in Britain were seen to be restricted to severe cases but the Hurlstone case signified a wider interpretation of ETS risk. The State of Minnesota and Blue Cross/Blue Shield sue tobacco companies for violating anti-trust laws by failing to disclose the addictive nature of tobacco. ABC television airs segments of Day One, a programme that includes reports of the tobacco industry's manipulation of nicotine. In Finland, the Helsinki City Court takes up an indictment for perjury against a Helsinki university professor of anatomy, Ismo Virtanen, who acted as a witness for the tobacco industry in the case of Pentti Aho, which began in 1988, and supported the industry's claim that medical science has not proved that tobacco causes disease. Virtanen had been paid $56,000 by the industry for his testimony.
1995 US District Judge rules that the Castano class action may proceed. The State of Florida sues tobacco companies for health care costs. The five largest tobacco companies file a suit against the Food and Drugs Administration's ruling on intended limits on tobacco advertising. Philip Morris sue, and as a result ABC forced to apologise and hand over some $16 million in legal fees. In France, the Comité National Contre le Tabagisme (CNCT) files lawsuits against SEITA, Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and Rothmans for contravening the advertising ban. CNCT was awarded damages in several court decisions. In Scotland, Margaret McTear takes Imperial Tobacco to court claiming damages for the death of her husband, who died from lung cancer. $1.9 million is awarded to plaintiff in the Kent Micronite filter case, the second award ever in a liability case against a tobacco company. The suit concerned asbestos not tobacco. State of Massachusetts sues tobacco industries for deceiving the public on the hazardous effects of smoking.
1996 Liggett Group makes dramatic break with the rest of the tobacco industry by offering to settle Medicaid and addiction-based lawsuits. The firm settles with five states over Medicaid suits, and agrees to pay $10 million in Medicaid bills for treatment of smokers. In Italy, the anti-trust committee acquits Philip Morris and Rothmans of practising deceptive advertising campaigns. B&W is ordered to pay lung cancer victim Grady Carter $750,000 in damages.- the second financial judgement ever in a strictly tobacco-oriented liability lawsuit. In Italy, the country's first tobacco liability case is brought against the state tobacco monopoly--Monopili di Stato--by the heirs of Snr. Stalteri who died from a smoking-related disease. Also, a suit is brought against the Italian state by Elvina Sanfelici over her husband's death from tobacco use. Both cases hinge on the lack of health warnings on cigarette packs before 1991. The Northern Irish case brought by John Dean reaches the High Court. In Britain, lawyers Leigh, Day & Co sue the tobacco industry initially on behalf of 300 clients, but later---in light of legal aid problems--for several dozen lung cancer victims.
1997 Liggett Tobacco and 22 US states settle lawsuits. Liggett admits that smoking is addictive and can cause cancer. Under terms of the settlement announced June 20, 1997 between the tobacco companies and the attorneys general of 40 states, the industry will be allowed to continue reaping huge profits from cigarette production, while receiving virtual immunity from liability lawsuits and a 12-year exemption from any ban on nicotine by the Food and Drug Administration. The media has focused on the $368 billion payment agreed to by the industry, but the real burden is far less. Virtually the whole cost of the settlement will be tax-deductible, which would not be the case if the tobacco companies lost an equivalent amount in damage suits filed by smokers. The US government will thus bear the cost of about one-third of the settlement, around $120 billion, in the form of reduced tax payments. The industry will be able to slash its current high annual legal bills--averaging over $600 million a year--and it will be required to halt the bulk of the advertising and promotional campaigns which presently absorb nearly $6 billion annually. These savings, combined with the tax writeoff, will be more than enough to pay for the $8 billion a year which the industry is obligated to pay to state governments, reimbursing them for Medicaid spending on victims of smoking-related diseases. In return for this "concession," the tobacco industry receives immunity from punitive damages for its past criminal conduct, including the suppression of evidence that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, and that the industry has deliberately promoted cigarette smoking among children. Future class-action suits against the industry will be barred, with legal action limited to individual lawsuits for compensatory damages--i.e., health care expenses and lost earnings only. Relatively few victims will be able to retain lawyers to take such cases without the incentive of contingency fees based on large punitive judgments. $10,000 per death Although an estimated 430,000 people die of smoking-related illnesses each year, the negotiators agreed that the tobacco companies would be limited to paying $5 billion in compensatory damages in any year, just over $10,000 per death. Even this amount is not likely to be collected because of the legal obstacles, so a procedure was established to funnel any uncollected money into antismoking campaigns. Another much-touted provision, a $2 billion-a-year penalty to take effect in 2002 if youth smoking does not decline by a specified amount, was effectively gutted by provisions waiving 75 percent of the fine if the companies make a "good faith" effort to reach this goal. In the event that these complex provisions unexpectedly result in an actual reduction in profits, the tobacco companies fully expect to recoup their losses by raising the price of cigarettes. A 75 cent increase per pack, widely predicted in the press, would net the industry some $18 billion a year, far more than the worst-case estimates of the cost of the settlement. The real effect of the agreement can be measured on the stock exchange, where the price of Philip Morris stock, long depressed, has risen 60 percent since reports of the negotiations first surfaced. As R.J. Reynolds boss Stephen Goldstone declared in a letter to company employees, "the agreement secures the tobacco industry's rightful place in the mainstream of US commerce." The origin of the talks The tobacco settlement has taken shape over the last three years, after state governments began to file lawsuits seeking reimbursement from the tobacco companies for the cost of treating Medicaid patients who were the victims of smoking-related diseases. While the tobacco companies have never paid a penny in damages to any individual victim, the state governments had the resources to conduct lengthy and expensive litigation. In 1995 Philip Morris Co., the industry leader, hired Herbert Wachtell, the attorney who designed the settlement of the class-action suit against the asbestos industry, to begin preliminary inquiries about a similar settlement in tobacco. The urgency of these talks was increased last year when a Florida jury returned the first-ever verdict against a tobacco company in the suit on behalf of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer. The $750,000 judgment is now on appeal, but a flood of new individual and class-action lawsuits has ensued. Formal talks between top corporate officials and the state attorneys general opened April 3, 1997 with Matthew Myers of the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids (largely funded by Johnson & Johnson Corp.) the only representative of antismoking and health care organizations. The key role in the talks was played by two Mississippi lawyers: the state's Attorney General Michael Moore and Richard Scruggs, a liability lawyer from Pascagoula, who was involved in the asbestos industry litigation. Scruggs, who is the brother-in-law of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, was ultimately put on retainer as the lawyer for 25 of the 40 states suing the tobacco companies. With contingency fees ranging up to 25 percent, he could net as much as $1 billion a year out of the settlement. Although many of the provisions of the settlement are modeled on the terms of agreements which ended class-action suits over asbestos, the Dalkon Shield IUD, silicone breast implants and other notorious consumer products, there is one important difference in the tobacco case. It is the first where an industry acknowledged selling a product which caused fatal disease or injury, but sought the right to continue selling it anyway. This premise was accepted by the state attorneys general and the other negotiators. As Attorney General Joseph Curran of Maryland remarked later, "In order to get the $368 billion, we need to keep people smoking." To insure this, the tobacco companies demanded and received a provision which essentially overturns a federal court decision issued April 25 in the midst of the negotiations. US District Court Judge William Osteen of Greensboro, North Carolina upheld the authority of the FDA to regulate nicotine as a drug and to classify cigarettes and other tobacco products as "drug-delivery devices." The settlement would bar the FDA from banning nicotine in cigarettes for 12 years and require that any restriction introduced after 2009 would be phased in over two years with a provision for a congressional veto. In other tobacco developments in 1997, a US Federal Judge ruled that the FDA may regulate tobacco as a drug, but denies limitations on advertising. The FDA launched an appeal. Further in the US, RJ Reynolds won a liability suit after jury fails to find the company guilty of negligence in the death of smoker Jean Connor. The Italian case brought by the heirs of Snr. Stalteri is defeated. In Sweden a product liability suit is brought against the tobacco company Swedish Match by lawyers acting on behalf of a cancer victim. The Finnish perjury case against the Helsinki university professor of anatomy, who had testified for the tobacco industry, concluded after three years of deliberation. In a 2-2 vote the Helsinki court waived the sentence against the accused. Decisions in the other Finnish cases are pending. South Florida tobacco liability lawyer David I. Fuchs will also represent you in other personal injury matters for injuries that include, but are not limited to: I) Injuries requiring surgery, sutures, staples 2) Traumatic Brain Injury, including those caused by oxygen deprivation 3) Severe burns resulting in significant and permanent scarring 4) Mental anguish and emotional distress, death 5) Those injuries caused by a collision with a driver that is drunk, impaired or otherwise under the influence of narcotics or drugs. Florida liability lawyer David I. Fuchs will then stand ready to fight for you to see that you get compensation for your pain and suffering, any lost wages and medical bills. Call South Florida tobacco liability lawyer attorney David I. Fuchs Toll Free at 800-570-2858 for a free consultation to discuss your tobacco liability case. You may also write to South Florida tobacco liability attorney David I. Fuchs by filling out the form on the "Contact Us" page." If you can not come to us South Florida tobacco liability lawyer David I. Fuchs will send a representative to see you. We speak English and Spanish. Se habla ingles y espanol. Llame David Fuchs Florida abogado de tabaco.
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