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The son of a woman who started receiving free Newport cigarettes at her Roxbury housing project when she was just 9 years old is suing the brand's maker for its role in his mother's death in what legal experts say is the nation's first lawsuit to accuse a tobacco company of deliberately targeting its product to African-American children.
Marie Evans, who died from lung cancer at age 54 in 2002, said that, as a child, she would regularly get free sample packs of 4 to 10 Newports during company giveaways on the edge of a playground at the Orchard Park housing complex. In interviews with lawyers before she died, Evans estimated that she received samples from the "Newport van" 25 to 50 times
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The son of a woman who started receiving free cigarettes at her city housing project when she was 9 years old is suing the manufacturer for its alleged role in his mother's death.
The lawsuit, which will be filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Monday according to The Boston Globe, is thought to be the first to accuse a tobacco company of targeting black children.
Marie Evans, said in interviews with lawyers before she died in 2002 at age 54, that as a child she would get free sample packs of four to 10 Newport cigarettes from a company giveaway van that regularly came to her Orchard Park housing project in the Roxbury neighborhood.
She estimated that she received free cigarettes 25 to 50 times, and at first traded them for candy, then started smoking at 13. . . .
Michael D. Weisman, who is also working on the Evans case, expects Lorillard to try "to bury us in paperwork," but he says it won't work.
"They set out to addict a child, addicted her and then killed her," he said. "We will have a trial."
A lawsuit filed against a cigarette maker by the family of a woman who died of lung cancer five years ago will be allowed to proceed after a Superior Court judge rejected the company's motion to dismiss.
Lorillard Tobacco Co. filed a motion to dismiss the suit filed by Will Evans, the son of Marie Evans, who died in 2002 at age 54. She had been a smoker for about 40 years.
Wednesday's decision clears the way for what is thought to be the first lawsuit to accuse a tobacco company of targeting black children.
According to the suit, Marie Evans started recieving free Newport cigarettes in her Boston neighborhood starting when she was 9 years old. She at first traded the cigarettes for candy, then started smoking at 13.
I was sitting in Starbucks this morning, reading The Boston Globe while watching customers inhale free samples of high-carb pastries, when I came upon a story about a recent lawsuit filed against Lorillard Tobacco for giving out free samples of cigarettes back in the 1950s. . . .
Does Starbucks have a legal obligation, based on currently available research, to disclose that those free samples may shorten a customer's lifespan?
The tobacco issue is crystal clear: when you intentionally hook a child on a deadly addiction, you can't walk away from your moral and legal culpability. The tobacco industry is a world-class villlan. But is Starbucks to blame for contributing to obesity and diabetes? I don't think so. It's a slippery slope to hold companies liable for the lifestyle decisions of adults.
A Massachusetts judge has rejected Lorillard Tobacco Co.'s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of a woman who allegedly started receiving free Newport cigarettes when she was 9 years old. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Paul E. Troy's decision, announced yesterday, clears the way for the nation's first trial of claims that a cigarette maker illegally handed out cigarettes to lure minority children to smoke.
Marie Evans , who died of lung cancer in 2002 at age 54, said she started receiving sample packs of Newport cigarettes in 1957 at company giveaways on the edge of a Roxbury playground. Lawyers for her son, Will Evans , allege that she was too young to recognize the hazards of smoking and that the child was dazzled by Newport advertising aimed at African-Americans, turning her into a smoker for more than 40 years.
"I would not call it racism, but Lorillard handed out free samples of its cigarettes to a poor minority community in Boston," said Rebecca McIntyre, a lawyer for Will Evans, who filed the lawsuit in 2004. McIntyre argued that the cigarette giveaway was a form of "battery" on Marie Evans because she was tricked into consuming a toxic substance.
Lawyers for Lorillard Tobacco declined to comment, but in court filings, the company argued that it should not be held liable for any harm to Evans that occurred after 1969, when Congress required cigarettes to carry a warning label. Evans's health problems from cigarettes did not begin until she suffered a heart attack in 1984
Lorillard Tobacco Co. has been sued by the son of a woman who died from lung cancer who claims the company handed his mother free cigarettes while she was a young girl.
The suit, filed Monday afternoon in Suffolk Superior Court in Massachusetts, says the Greensboro-based tobacco manufacturer held Newport cigarette giveaway events near Marie R. Evans' housing project in Roxbury, Mass. According to the suit, Lorillard used giveaways to attract black children and teenagers and get cigarettes into their hands. . .
At its current status, McIntyre expects the case go to court in about three years.
In what is believed to be one of the nation's first lawsuits to accuse a tobacco company of targeting black children, the son of a Roxbury woman who died of lung cancer in 2002 says his mother got hooked as a young teen by the free Newport cigarettes the company regularly handed out in her neighborhood playground nearly 50 years ago.
``It was like the ice cream truck arrived,'' Will Evans said yesterday, describing the stories his late mother, Marie Evans, told of the bright green trucks with pretty women handing out smokes near the Orchard Park housing project. . . .
``They would hand out cigarettes . . . near the jungle gym and swingsets,'' said Evans' attorney, Rebecca McIntyre. ``This was a strategy that was evil. There is no other way to characterize it.''
Marie Evans, who died from lung cancer at age 54 in 2002, said that, as a child, she would regularly get free sample packs of 4 to 10 Newports during company giveaways on the edge of a playground at the Orchard Park housing complex. In interviews with lawyers before she died, Evans estimated that she received samples from the "Newport van" 25 to 50 times. She initially traded them for candy, but said she began to smoke at age 13.
"They have employed these marketing strategies to target not only children, but children in the black community," said Rebecca McIntyre of Weisman & McIntyre in Boston, which is filing the lawsuit against North Carolina-based Lorillard Tobacco on Monday in Suffolk Superior Court. "It's evil." . . .
legal analysts say Evans' case could short-circuit the industry's standard argument against adult smokers: they were old enough to know better.
"I don't think any of the other lawsuits have focused on the issue of the deliberate campaign of handing out free samples to a child," said Edward L. Sweda, Jr. . . .
Will Evans argues that his mother was seduced by a marketing strategy that was illegal even in the 1950s . . .
Norman Black, creative director for the advertising agency that promoted Newports from 1974 to 1992, admits he geared his ads to attract underage smokers . . .
Black, who made a public service announcement for Massachusetts in 2000 apologizing for his work for Newport, is remorseful about his career now.
They set out to addict a child, addicted her and then killed her. We will have a trial.Michael D. Weisman, who is working on the Evans case -- the nation's first lawsuit to accuse a tobacco company of deliberately targeting its product to African-American children.
The son of a woman who died of lung cancer is planning to sue the cigarette maker that gave her free samples when she was a girl, contending the giveaways were aimed at black children.
The lawsuit against Lorillard Tobacco Co., maker of Newport cigarettes, is thought by legal experts to be the first to accuse a tobacco company of targeting black children. It is to be filed Monday in Suffolk Superior Court, The Boston Globe reported in its Saturday editions.
Marie Evans, in interviews with lawyers before she died in 2002 at age 54, said as a child she would get free sample packs of four to 10 Newport cigarettes from a company van that regularly came to the Boston housing project where she lived. . . .
Norman Black, the creative director for the advertising agency that promoted Newport from 1974 to 1992, said his ad campaigns were geared toward young people, though not necessarily blacks, since they smoked Newports in large numbers anyway.