LANDMARK VICTORY - STORY CONTINUES    PUNITIVE DAMAGES TO BE DECIDED IN LUMP SUM

The trial in Florida, known as the Engle case, is set to resume
on January 18, 2000.

The tobacco industry sought to derail it by an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

But the Florida Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal on an October 1999 decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeals.

You may read the full Associated Press story at http://www.cnn.com/1999/US/12/27/florida.smokers.ap/index.html

Other information is available at the following web sites:
Tobacco Product Liability Project
Action on Smoking and Health
Tobacco.org

October 20, 1999

    A Florida Appeals Court has ruled that the landmark class action case of smokers against the tobacco companies may continue as a class action.  The ruling permits the jury to decide on a lump sum judgment in punitive damages against the industry, rather than trying hundreds of thousands of cases individually.

The following quotation in bold is taken from the Tobacco Product Liability Project web site, http://www.tobacco.edu.neu :

10/20/99 - In a disaster for the tobacco industry, Florida's Third District Court of Appeals today ruled against the tobacco defendants and set the stage for a massive punitive damages verdict on behalf of all injured Florida smokers that could exceed $10 billion.  Defendants would need to post bond to file an appeal. There is a very real possibility that this could result in bankruptcy for Philip Morris and others by February, 2000!

The next phase of the trial begins on November 1.

                  The appeals court had ruled September 3 that damage claims in the
                  landmark smoking case must be considered one smoker at a time, rather
                  than for the class estimated at half a million people.

                  The appeals court vacated its decision in September and called for oral
                  arguments.

                  Lead tobacco attorney Dan Webb told the panel Wednesday that a single
                  award would cause an "enormous amount of irreparable harm to the
                  industry."

                  "The most likely result is that many, if not all of the companies will be sent
                  into Chapter 11 (bankruptcy). I think they may not be able to live with this."

Many articles on this trial may be found at http://www.tobacco.org and http://www.ash.org and http://www.tobacco.neu.edu.

The jury was to reconvene on Tuesday, September 7th for the next phase, punitive damages.  However, the tobacco industry succeeded with an appeal to a higher court, which delayed events.  BUT, on October 20, 1999, that court ruled that the punitive damages phase may continue to be decided as a lump sum by the jury.

Fla. Jury Finds Tobacco Cos. Liable

Wednesday, July 7, 1999; 5:19 p.m. EDT

MIAMI (AP) -- The jury in the first class-action lawsuit by smokers ever to go to trial found Wednesday that cigarette makers produced a defective product that causes emphysema, lung cancer and other illnesses -- a ruling that could expose the industry to billions in damages.

The jury, which deliberated over a complicated 10-question verdict form for seven days, will return in the next phase to determine damages.

Their decision could prove to be the industry's most dire courtroom loss yet, since the plaintiffs are seeking at least $200 billion.

The lawsuit was filed in 1994 on behalf of as many as 500,000 sick Florida smokers and the heirs of those who died. Plaintiffs and family members openly wept and hugged each other as the verdict was read.

"This is really a clean sweep, a tremendous victory for the public health and for the hundreds of thousands of victims in Florida," said Richard Daynard, a Northeastern University law professor.

The smokers claimed the industry deceived them about the dangers of smoking, hid research results, stopped scientific work that promised to produce safer cigarettes and advertised to children. Attorney Stanley Rosenblatt called it a "rampant and cynical long-standing pattern of fraud."

The industry claimed that there's no scientific proof that smoking causes any illness and that the public is well aware that smoking is risky.

Now that the industry has been found liable, the jury will decide what damages should be awarded to the suit's nine plaintiffs. Once their cases are concluded, the half-million other members of the class will be free to file their claims.

Jurors heard eight months of testimony and were exposed to thousands of documents from decades of tobacco litigation.

Former surgeons general, ex-tobacco industry scientists and doctors testified about the havoc smoking can wreak on the body, the difficulty in trying to quit and the manufacturers' refusal to cooperate with health officials.

The defendants were the nation's five biggest cigarette makers and two industry groups: Philip Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Lorillard Tobacco Co., Liggett Group Inc., the Council for Tobacco Research and the Tobacco Institute.