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The 1990's marked what some people called the "tobacco wars." With evidence growing of the health hazards of smoking cigarettes, many wondered if tobacco companies should be held liable for the harm caused by their products. In one of the pivotal cases in this long battle, a lung-cancer sufferer named Grady Carter took on one of the tobacco giants. His case brought to the fore a wide range of issues and was one of the most important in the ongoing conflict.
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However, a local attorney who fought the cigarette companies and won says the ruling will make it easier to try their individual cases.
Woody Wilner says, "The toll from this preventable epidemic is huge." . . .
Wilner says that case paved the way for another major decision a decade later, this time by the Florida Supreme Court. "The Florida Supreme Court has ruled cigarette smoking is addictive."
While class action lawsuits are no longer allowed, Wilner says he has up to 10,000 individual cases that are qualified to individually sue the tobacco companies for damages. "We intend to file as many cases that are presented to us."
Grady Carter is now a frail 76-year-old former smoker who survived lung cancer, and he too is pleased with the Supreme Court ruling. "I have many friends who were not as lucky as I and have died of lung cancer. Any way we can stop this, I hope they get compensation."
Norwood “Woody” Wilner will be busier than usual over the next few weeks, helping fortify a class action dream that is two steps away from becoming reality.
Admittedly, those are two large steps. The Florida Supreme Court first, with the U.S. Supreme Court undoubtedly waiting in the wings. But the payoff is enormous — $145 billion. If finally approved, it would be the largest victory in the history of the world for any product liability, said Wilner, of Spohrer Wilner Maxwell & Matthews.
At stake is a final judgment in the case of Engle v. Liggett Group Inc., a class action suit originally filed in 1994 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on behalf of six lead plaintiffs and 700,000 additional Florida smokers. . . .
Wilner will file briefs in support of the Rosenblatts by the June deadline. Oral arguments will be heard Oct. 6. . . .
Wilner estimated that close to 5,000 of Spohrer Wilner’s clients are members of the class action. The firm gets about 30 calls every day from people who may become clients.
Wilner said that, despite a handful of victories over the tobacco industry, it has been “a very, very hard battle” for the dozen or so years he’s been involved. . . .
“Do the smokers have enough in common?” Wilner asked. “Just the fact of smoking ought to be enough.
“If you’re in a bus accident, and the bus goes down a ravine, that’s a typical class, even though somebody hit their head and somebody broke their leg.”
A Pennsylvania jury Monday absolved Philip Morris USA of liability in the death of a longtime smoker whose family had accused the company of concealing the hazards and addictiveness of its cigarettes.
The state court jury in Philadelphia ruled the company was not responsible for the death of Katie Carter, who began smoking in 1955, 11 years before warning labels first appeared on cigarettes. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997, she died a short time later at age 62.
The victory for the tobacco giant came on the day its parent company, Philip Morris Cos., formally changed its name to Altria Group Inc.
By 1947, at age 17, he was smoking Lucky Strikes to keep up with his high school classmates in Jacksonville. He kept smoking for another 44 years.
Today, despite a lifetime of contributing to the tobacco industry, Carter, 71, has become a national icon for the anti-smoking movement.
After a bout with cancer that took one of his lungs and a personal epiphany that led him to sue the manufacturers of Lucky Strikes, he is the first individual to slip past Big Tobacco's mighty legal defenses and collect a judgment from a cigarette maker.
The outcome became official two weeks ago . .
Brown & Williamson spokesman Mark Smith said the company remains confident about defending similar cases in the future. Carter still smiles at Smith's words after the company sent him his check.
"Our suggestion to Mr. Wilner is don't go out and spend the money," the company spokesman said confidently.
Chuckled Carter: "Brown & Williamson told me a lot of things that weren't true."
But the Florida Supreme Court, which has ruled against the industry in several important cases, reinstated the verdict in November. Carter's award was finally freed up after the court rejected a move by Brown & Williamson to have it held in escrow while the company asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. John Finley, a lawyer for the cigarette maker, said it will argue that Carter's claim was pre-empted by the federal law that requires a printed warning on cigarette packages.
"We'd advise Carter not to spend the money," said Mark Smith, a Brown & Williamson spokesman. . .
Enemies of Big Tobacco hope the award will help further dispel what had been the industry's aura of courtroom invincibility.
"These cases should be treated just like any other case," said Richard A. Daynard, a Northeastern University School of Law professor and longtime anti-tobacco advocate.
The payment by the third-largest U.S. cigarette maker to 70-year-old Grady Carter of Orange Park, Fla., represented $750,000 in damages and $350,000 in interest accrued since Carter won a product liability lawsuit against Brown & Williamson in 1996 in Jacksonville.
Brown and Williamson spokesman Mark Smith however had this advice to Carter's lawyer, ``Don't spend it -- it's going to the U.S. Supreme Court.'' . .
``Today marks a great milestone,'' Wilner said. ``When this case was filed in 1995, we were called crazy. The cigarette industry was untouched in court. They had never paid a cent in damages to anyone.''
In a major setback for the tobacco industry, the Florida Supreme Court in November leveled the playing field for plaintiffs claiming latent or creeping injuries caused by years of smoking. The high court sealed its ruling in January when it refused to hold a second hearing in the case of Grady Carter v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.
In doing so, Carter, a 70-year-old lung cancer patient from Jacksonville, is closer to becoming the first person to collect money from a cigarette maker after a jury found tobacco caused his illness.
The core of the conflict that faced justices: When does the state’s statute of limitations on product liability start to run? . .
But it takes many years of smoking before cancer or other illnesses may be diagnosed and linked to tobacco use. That puts it into the realm of “latent” or “creeping” disease or injury, in the same manner that slowly developing diseases caused by inhaling asbestos fibers or coal dust are. . .
At one point during Carter’s trial, there were 23 Big Tobacco lawyers stacked up against Maxwell and his partner, Norwood “Woody” S. Wilner.
``This decision is in direct conflict with the United States Supreme Court decision in the Cipollone case, which established the doctrine of preemption,'' said B&W attorney John Finley. That doctrine finds that the accuracy of federally mandated health warnings on each pack of cigarettes can not be challenged.
``We will seek a rehearing before the Florida Supreme Court, and we are considering going directly to U.S. Supreme Court,'' he said. ``We are confident that this case eventually will be resolved consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's prior rulings.''
This decision is in direct conflict with the United States Supreme Court decision in the Cipollone case, which established the doctrine of preemption. That doctrine finds that the accuracy of federally mandated health warnings on each pack of cigarettes can not be challenged. We will seek a rehearing before the Florida Supreme Court, and we are considering going directly to U.S. Supreme Court.B&W attorney John Finley, on the Carter decision. <I>Brown & Williamson Says Florida Supreme Court Erred in Reversing Court of Appeals Decision</I>
In August 1996, a jury awarded Grady Carter more than $700,000 dollars in a cigarette-smoking liability lawsuit.
Three years later, the Orange Park man hasn't received a dime from Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., which successfully fought the jury's decision before the 1st District Court of Appeal.
Now Carter is taking his case before Florida's highest court in hopes of bringing to an end a legal battle that actually started in 1995. Today, lawyers for Carter and Brown & Williamson will argue before the Florida Supreme Court the merits
Louisville, Kentucky-based Brown & Williamson had challenged the Carter verdict by arguing that the statute of limitations on the smoker's rights to sue over injuries had elapsed.
A three-member panel of Florida's First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee agreed. ``The initial complaint was filed more than four years after Grady Carter knew or should have known, with the exercise of due diligence, that he had a smoking- related disease,'' last June's ruling said.