SMOKERS' CLASS-ACTION SUIT GOES TO TRIAL

MIAMI - For Albert Rigwan, an inveterate smoker from Miami Beach,
advertising symbol Joe Camel is one smooth operator: "Like a playboy, a
Casanova, like Humphrey Bogart."

"I was a smoker over 50 years, and I still can't quit," said Rigwan, who has
lung disease. "I was hospitalized several times."

At 65, Rigwan strongly suspects smoking also caused glaucoma in his left eye.

Starting today, in the nation's first-of-its-kind class-action trial brought
by smokers, he and thousands of other Floridians will start the long road
toward trying to prove that their addiction to cigarettes led to illness.
Jury selection is expected to take several weeks for the closely watched
trial, which academic experts believe could widely influence public opinion
and the outcome of thousands of individual lawsuits around the nation.

Suit focuses on addiction

Up until now, no other case has focused so narrowly on the addiction issue.

The plaintiffs allege that the tobacco industry spent billions of dollars
over the years to conceal research that nicotine is addictive and smoking
destructive, while simultaneously advertising their products as socially
desirable. For the first time, plaintiffs will have a chance to use industry
papers obtained by the state of Minnesota that discuss the cover-up of
research linking smoking and lung cancer.

"The class accuses the tobacco companies of telling many lies over the
years," said Miami attorney Stanley Rosenblatt last week.

But Philadelphia attorney Robert Heim, who leads a battery of lawyers for
Brown & Williamson, Liggett Group, Lorillard, Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and
two industry trade groups, said the main issue is the exercise of choice.
Smokers can quit if they put their minds to it.

"It's common knowledge that smoking is more risky than not smoking," Heim
said. "The risk is outlined on the pack. It's a legal product."

That smoking is risky "is certainly not going to be challenged by us," he said.

What will be challenged is the plaintiffs' conspiracy theory.

"I don't think the American people buy that argument," Heim said.

Liggett's participation opposed

But the industry isn't completely unified.

Heim has asked the court to remove Liggett from the defense table. In a 1997
break with the industry, Liggett Chairman Bennett LeBow became the first
high-ranking corporate officer to declare cigarettes addictive and the cause
of deadly illness. The company also settled claims with 40 states.

Heim argued that Liggett's actions make it a veritable opponent of the other
companies.

If the smokers win, each must prove his or her damages separately at later
proceedings, Heim said.

In other cases around the country, money has been hard to come by once the
combatants have fought in court. Although tobacco companies have agreed to
settle with four states, including Florida, for approximately $37 billion in
Medicaid reimbursements, they have not paid a dime after suffering
trial-court defeats, which are on appeal.

Rosenblatt and his co-counsel wife, Susan, negotiated a $349 million
settlement to resolve a class-action suit on behalf of thousands of flight
attendants who said secondhand smoke aboard airliners made them sick. But
the deal - approved by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Robert Kaye, who is also
presiding over the addiction case - did not call for a single penny to be
paid to the plaintiffs. Instead, the tobacco companies agreed to pay out
$300 million for a research foundation and $49 million in fees and costs to
the Rosenblatts.

Oxygen tanks brought to court

But the plaintiffs in the addiction case remain undaunted. As the trial has
neared, large groups have attended hearing after hearing, some hauling
oxygen tanks to help them breathe, others using electronic voice boxes to
help them communicate.

All suffer from cancer, or some form of heart or lung disease.

Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle, the lead class representative, has
emphysema. He still smokes. Like Rigwan, he says he can't quit.

Faced with a courtroom environment of spectators wheezing, coughing and
choking, industry lawyers are trying to keep the expression of emotions and
passion to a minimum.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett