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Man, 92, wins $1.9 million tobacco judgment in wife's death
CNN
August 13, 2009
(CNN) -- A Florida jury awarded a 92-year-old man $1.9
million in compensatory damages for the death of his
wife, a former two-pack-a-day Marlboro smoker who started
when she was 16 and died in her 70s, attorneys said
Thursday.
The jury of five women and one man deliberated
for slightly more than a day before deciding on the
amount, attorneys for both sides said. The jurors put
the total award at $5.3 million but found that Philip
Morris USA was only 36.5 percent responsible for the
lung cancer that plaintiffs said killed Leon Barbanell's
wife.
Shirley Barbanell herself was deemed 63.5
percent responsible, the attorneys said.
Plaintiff's attorney Jonathan Gdanski
said the jury found a design defect and a breach of
warranty.
Philip Morris announced that it plans
to appeal the case, one of thousands of "Engle
progeny" cases, named after a 2006 Florida Supreme
Court decision that decertified a class-action lawsuit
against the tobacco industry. That case involved Dr.
Howard A. Engle, a Miami Beach pediatrician and smoker
who served as the lead plaintiff in the class-action
suit.
The decertification decision let former
class members file lawsuits individually, and thousands
did.
The Florida Supreme Court also allowed
some factual findings about smoking causing disease
be taken from Engle case and applied to the progeny
cases "so plaintiff's attorneys don't have to start
from square one in each of these cases," said Ed
Sweda, a lawyer for the Tobacco Products Liability Project
in Boston, Massachusetts.
The industry has balked at that. "Today's
verdict is the result of a severely prejudicial trial
plan," said Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services
senior vice president and associate general counsel,
speaking on behalf of Philip Morris USA, in a written
statement. "From beginning to end, this case was
marked by legal rulings that should be reversed on appeal,
including allowing this jury to rely almost exclusively
on findings by a prior jury that have no direct connection
with the plaintiff in this case."
So far, six of the eight Engle cases that
have gone to trial have come back with a plaintiff's
verdict, said Sweda. "Another bunch are in the
pipeline ready for trial this year," he said.
About Thursday's verdict, he said, "This
is certainly a clear indication that tobacco litigation
is alive and well."
Gdanski said his firm has more than 150
Engle cases. "We're more than happy to keep trying
them," he said.
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