News (Media Awareness Project) - US IN: Secondhand Smoke Death Claim Rejected |
| Title: | US IN: Secondhand Smoke Death Claim Rejected |
| Published On: | 1998-03-22 |
| Source: | San Jose Mercury News (CA) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-07 13:28:59 |
SECONDHAND SMOKE DEATH CLAIM REJECTED
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) -- The tobacco industry is not liable in the cancer death
of a non-smoking nurse exposed to secondhand smoke at a veteran's hospital,
a jury decided Thursday.
The jury of six non-smokers said that cigarettes were not a defective
product and that their makers were not negligent for failing to tell people
that secondhand cigarette smoke was dangerous.
Philip Wiley was seeking at least $13.3 million in compensatory damages
from six tobacco companies and two industry groups for the 1991 death of
his wife, Mildred, age 56. The jury also could have recommend millions more
in punitive damages.
The lawsuit was believed to be the first blaming secondhand smoke in an
individual's death to reach trial.
Wiley's attorneys attempted to show that tobacco companies were aware of
the danger of secondhand smoke for decades and tried to cover it up.
Industry attorneys said there is no proven connection between secondhand
smoke and cancer. They also said Mildred Wiley's cancer may have had other
causes and could have started in her pancreas, then spread to her lung.
The industry recently settled a $348 million class-action suit filed by
flight attendants against the tobacco industry. That case was the nation's
first secondhand-smoke trial. The attendants blamed their illnesses on the
air they breathed on smoky airliners.
``The case in Muncie is of particular importance because it would set a new
precedent for the industry's vulnerability,'' said Cliff Douglas, a lawyer
who consults anti-tobacco members of Congress.
Mary Aronson, a tobacco policy and litigation analyst in Washington, said
the case could have more impact than other tobacco liability cases because
Indiana law is more conservative than that of other states.
The defendants were Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Co., Philip Morris Inc., The American Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co.
and the Liggett Group Inc. Also named in the suit were the Tobacco
Institute and the Council for Tobacco Research.
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) -- The tobacco industry is not liable in the cancer death
of a non-smoking nurse exposed to secondhand smoke at a veteran's hospital,
a jury decided Thursday.
The jury of six non-smokers said that cigarettes were not a defective
product and that their makers were not negligent for failing to tell people
that secondhand cigarette smoke was dangerous.
Philip Wiley was seeking at least $13.3 million in compensatory damages
from six tobacco companies and two industry groups for the 1991 death of
his wife, Mildred, age 56. The jury also could have recommend millions more
in punitive damages.
The lawsuit was believed to be the first blaming secondhand smoke in an
individual's death to reach trial.
Wiley's attorneys attempted to show that tobacco companies were aware of
the danger of secondhand smoke for decades and tried to cover it up.
Industry attorneys said there is no proven connection between secondhand
smoke and cancer. They also said Mildred Wiley's cancer may have had other
causes and could have started in her pancreas, then spread to her lung.
The industry recently settled a $348 million class-action suit filed by
flight attendants against the tobacco industry. That case was the nation's
first secondhand-smoke trial. The attendants blamed their illnesses on the
air they breathed on smoky airliners.
``The case in Muncie is of particular importance because it would set a new
precedent for the industry's vulnerability,'' said Cliff Douglas, a lawyer
who consults anti-tobacco members of Congress.
Mary Aronson, a tobacco policy and litigation analyst in Washington, said
the case could have more impact than other tobacco liability cases because
Indiana law is more conservative than that of other states.
The defendants were Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Co., Philip Morris Inc., The American Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co.
and the Liggett Group Inc. Also named in the suit were the Tobacco
Institute and the Council for Tobacco Research.
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