It All Burns Down to Smoking
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Persisting is clearly not the only answer when it comes to men, or smokers for that matter. In the case of Mrs. Elmer Perry, who begged and begged her husband, Mr Baker, to quit smoking, it seemed her efforts were truly for a lost cause. In 1993, months after being diagnosed with lung cancer, Mr. Baker died at age 65.
In Mrs Perry’s opinion, the fact that her husband could not quit smoking, all boiled down to being ‘deceived’ and lied to by tobacco companies for years, driving her ambition to take such companies to court. The attorney representing Mrs Perry, Harry Shevin, was keen to stress that the case was ‘about greed, about money, about how the defendant R.J. Reynolds put sales over safety and profit over people’ to the Palm Beach County jury on Tuesday.
In their defense, the two attorneys representing R.J. Reynolds, which produced the Lucky Strikes, Winstons and Pall Malls, attempted to convince the jury that Mr Baker’s death was merely a produce of will; he could have quit, had he wanted. Mark Belasic, the attorney who represents the tobacco giant, said “Mr. Baker was a willing smoker who chose to smoke because he enjoyed it….He knew the risks and he chose to smoke anyway.”
This sort of case is nothing new to the Florida Supreme Court; it is one of thousands that spurted up post the court throwing out the $145 billion a jury awarded smokers in a class-action suit. While upholding the jury’s findings that the cigarette-makers lied about the dangers of smoking, the high court ruled that each smoker had to prove how he or she was uniquely harmed.
By the end of May, when a Broward County jury ordered four tobacco companies to pay $75.35 million to the family of a Lauderhill smoker, 65 cases had gone to trial. Of those, 43 were won by smokers or their families. In the three cases tried in Palm Beach County, two ended with multi-million-dollar verdicts for smokers while one resulted in a win for cigarette-makers.
As expected, the companies have appealed all of the unfavorable verdicts, and in some cases the decisions have been upheld and the victims have been compensated. Is the aim to get rich or to punish corporate America for putting ‘defective’ products on the market? Perhaps both. Regardless, the commonality of such cases in South Florida, has put legal support companies such as Olender Legal Solutions or Reitz Worldwide, to work, helping attorneys to compile depositions and hire court reporters, in order to take the burn out of such tobacco litigations.
AUTHOR: Francesca Page
Copyright Olender Legal Solutions, Miami Court Reporters
More information about Olender Legal Solutions, Miami Court Reporters
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.
In their defense, the two attorneys representing R.J. Reynolds, which produced the Lucky Strikes, Winstons and Pall Malls, attempted to convince the jury that Mr Baker’s death was merely a produce of will; he could have quit, had he wanted. Mark Belasic, the attorney who represents the tobacco giant, said “Mr. Baker was a willing smoker who chose to smoke because he enjoyed it….He knew the risks and he chose to smoke anyway.”
This sort of case is nothing new to the Florida Supreme Court; it is one of thousands that spurted up post the court throwing out the $145 billion a jury awarded smokers in a class-action suit. While upholding the jury’s findings that the cigarette-makers lied about the dangers of smoking, the high court ruled that each smoker had to prove how he or she was uniquely harmed.
By the end of May, when a Broward County jury ordered four tobacco companies to pay $75.35 million to the family of a Lauderhill smoker, 65 cases had gone to trial. Of those, 43 were won by smokers or their families. In the three cases tried in Palm Beach County, two ended with multi-million-dollar verdicts for smokers while one resulted in a win for cigarette-makers.
As expected, the companies have appealed all of the unfavorable verdicts, and in some cases the decisions have been upheld and the victims have been compensated. Is the aim to get rich or to punish corporate America for putting ‘defective’ products on the market? Perhaps both. Regardless, the commonality of such cases in South Florida, has put legal support companies such as Olender Legal Solutions or Reitz Worldwide, to work, helping attorneys to compile depositions and hire court reporters, in order to take the burn out of such tobacco litigations.
AUTHOR: Francesca Page
Copyright Olender Legal Solutions, Miami Court Reporters
More information about Olender Legal Solutions, Miami Court Reporters
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.
