A
jury in Broward County Circuit Court decided on Thursday
that Philip Morris USA Inc.
should pay millions to Leon Barbanell, whose wife, Shirley,
died in 1996 at age 73. Broward jury awards
$5 million to man whose wife
died of lung cancer
Sun Sentinel
View News Article
August 15, 2009
FORT LAUDERDALE - Leon Barbanell doesn't expect to see
a dime of the $5.3 million he won in a judgment against
cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris in Broward Circuit
Court on Thursday.
The cigarette maker will appeal, he and
his lawyers conceded at a news conference today. And
the process will drag out for years.
But Barbanell, 92, now gets to do something
he couldn't do in the 13 years since his wife, Shirley,
died of lung cancer after years of smoking. He can tell
his late wife, to whom he speaks nightly, that justice
has been served.
A six-member jury awarded $5.3 million
in compensatory damages after a trial that took more
than a decade to reach a courtroom.
Barbanell said today that both he and
his wife continued to smoke even after they learned
of the harm cigarettes can cause. Diagnosed with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease in the early 1990s, Shirley
Barbanell tried to quit smoking but couldn't. Leon Barbanell's
lawyer, Steven J. Hammer, argued that her inability
to quit was in large part because tobacco companies
manufactured an addictive product and publicly argued
cigarettes were not that harmful.
Shirley Barbanell was 73 when she died
in 1996, 30 days after she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Her husband tried to have a cigar after her funeral.
Disgusted by the taste, he said, he threw it away and
hasn't used a tobacco product since.
In a statement, Philip Morris said it
planned to appeal.
Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services
senior vice president and associate general counsel,
spoke on behalf of Philip Morris USA in the statement,
saying the verdict was the result of a "severely
prejudicial trial plan."
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