Widow of Miami smoker who died of cancer sues tobacco companies
02/05/03
MIAMI (AP) - Attitudes toward smoking and knowledge about the health effects of cigarettes were explored during jury selection Monday in the federal trial of two cigarette makers being sued by a widow in the lung cancer death of her photographer husband.
Sylvia Allen is suing Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds in the death of her husband and business partner James, a North Miami Beach commercial photographer who died of lung cancer after 50 years of smoking. Her attorneys say he tried to quit by using nicotine patches and hypnosis and even by going cold turkey, but smoked until he died nine months after doctors found a malignant tumor in his foot in 1999. He was 64.
As in other smoker trials, Allen's attorneys plan to use internal tobacco industry documents against the cigarette makers on subjects including the health effects of smoking and the role played by nicotine in addiction.
A jury candidate who once smoked four packs of cigarettes a day said in a questionnaire that he didn't believe tobacco companies manipulated nicotine levels or intentionally put harmful ingredients in cigarettes.
The printing company plant manager said those were his personal opinions, but he was willing to be educated.
Another prospective jury had doubts about whether smokers should be allowed to sue for smoking-related disease.
"There's a certain responsibility that the user should take for themselves," he said. "I personally don't see why somebody can't stop smoking if they want to."
Neither made it onto the jury. A panel of three men and three women plus two men serving as alternates was told to return for opening statements Tuesday.
Allen's lawsuit is separate from a record $145 billion punitive damage award covering sick Florida smokers in 2000. That verdict is on appeal.
His cancer was diagnosed after the window of time closed in the state class action lawsuit, allowing his widow to sue separately the following year.
U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King is restricting possible damages to a compensatory award, ruling last week that a 1999 law eliminates punitive damages as an option.
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