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Philip Morris to
Appeal $1.9 Million Award to Widower of Two-Pack-a-Day
Smoker
Billy Shields
Law.com
August 14, 2009
A Broward Circuit Court jury awarded $1.93 million Thursday
to the husband of a woman who smoked two packs of cigarettes
a day for more than 40 years. The Florida jury deliberated
for more than eight hours before handing down the verdict
for Leon Barbanell, 92, who sued on behalf of his late
wife, Shirley. The Marlboro smoker started smoking when
she was 16 and died from lung cancer in 1996 at 73.
"No amount of money would bring back
his wife," said the widower's attorney, Jonathan
Gdanski of the Law Offices of Sheldon J. Schlesinger
in Fort Lauderdale. "He's suffered tremendously
as a result of her passing, and he's entitled to be
compensated for her premature death."
Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services
associate general counsel, issued a statement on behalf
of Marlboro maker Philip Morris saying the verdict was
"the result of a severely prejudicial trial plan"
and the company will appeal.
Gdanski filed suit against Philip Morris,
alleging the tobacco company negligently concealed facts
about the dangers of smoking.
"Philip Morris denied she had lung
cancer, denied she died from it and denied she was addicted
to it," Gdanski said in a telephone interview after
the verdict. He said he conceded partial liability from
the beginning of the trial, but the tobacco company
"challenged every issue they could challenge."
The jury found Philip Morris was liable
Monday and decided on damages Thursday. The jury awarded
total damages of $5.3 million but assigned 63.5 percent
of the blame to Shirley Barbanell, reducing the award
to her husband. The Barbanells moved to South Florida
in 1982 from New York.
About 8,000 sick smokers are suing statewide
in individual spinoffs from a 1994 class action that
was disbanded on appeal. The class action named for
the late Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle resulted
in a $145 billion verdict, which was overturned. The
case ended when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review
a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision.
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