Tobacco Documents Online

_ .,,~~~ij;t,,i r. onship Involved ~ A federal court jury impan- Y,,eled for the trial of a suit in- tc~;rolving the relationship between ,;c,~g,aTette smoking and cancer bdg opening statements pf :, r counsel Tuesday. Almost the entire second day. of the trial was taken up with the selectiori of two alternate f urors who will participate in the " deiiberations only if , , regular R, topcomeplete hearing the case. ~; ':<'The taking of testimony in the {, case in which Mrs. Victoria St. ; Pierre . Lartigue, . formerly a resident' of ' Franklin, now of Houston, Tex., claims that her ~ 4usband's fatal lung cancer was caused by his smoking of ciga- ~, rettes is scheduled to begin~ at :_ 10 $. m., Wednesday before ~ Judge Herbert. W. ' Christen- '4~= .T"_._Y6rry. . . ' . ._ . . Mrs. Lartlgue is suing the : I3ggett ' and Meyers Tobacco Company and the R. J. Rey- polds TobaccWCompany. CALLED .CHAIN SMOKER ? H., Alva Brumfield, Baton Rouge attorney, _representing Mrs. Lartigue, charged in his opening statement that tha two defendants killed' her husband "not: by running over him with ' one of their trucks; but causing - _ his -death just as affectiveiy by .the use of products manufac-~ tured and sold by them.' LL•: He told the jury that he hopes', to prove that Frank J. Lartigue used Liggett and Meyers and' ; R. J. Reynolds products for 91I years and smoked them exces- sively. The attorney described the deceased as a chain smoker who used more than two pack- ages of cigarettes a day. He diS- played to thl jury packages of l~a~d with the New Orleans King Bee tobacco and Picayune, firm-of Chaffe, McCall, Phillips,~ cigarettes, products of LiBgett'Burke and Hopkins, representin ' and Meyers, and a package of R. `J: Reynolds, told the juryi Camels, a product of the Rey-1 nolds company. He said that'that evidence of 'the defense Lartigue rolled 'his own cigar-~~'lil show"that tartigue's deathh ettes with the Kitig Bee and, was caused. by his own neglect also used I%cayunes and Cam= °f his health .> ._: 1- els. ; ~ The defendants claicn, Kindle „'°r:'~;" "- '•^^ sserted` that Lartigae's deatki , 'was not caused by aqything ey did or did not do in any ay,, shape or form." He alleged that the claim of the plaintiff is _ supported only Lartigue died in July, .1955, at the age of 65, Brumfield paid, in: the Veterans Adminis- tration - hospital. In Houston where he went after being!oper- ated on for the cancer at thel ,Y Ochsner Foundation hospital ia'by suspicion,- ~njecture, and things ef that character,, no sub- New Orleans: _ - ;; • .' stantial evidence." .`CIGARETTE FIEND' pindle s h a r p 1 y 'criticized The 1 plaintiff's attorney de~ Brumfield's request that the scribed him as - "a cigarette jury bring in a verdict for the fiend.',' Brumfield told the jury widow in the sunl of ;150,000, "the first' thing he did' in ttle pointing out that the amount morning was smoke a cigarette.- sought in the original suit was He smoked all day, through,,the $779,500. He' referred to this day and snioked every. cigar- amount as "a dream." He as- ette down to the very butt." - serted that he will produce evi-• The attorney said that he wJll dence to show that while Larti- prove that the tWo companies gue was still alive ~he offered had a"responsibil.ity to malfe to settle with R. J. Reynolds their product wholesome, "to for $750 for hospitalization ex- make their product in such a penses and;750 for loss of work.. manner that they wouldn't kill 'HAD TO GET OUT' :' people or osuse them any Discussing the factor of con harm.,.. t <' b Hee claimed that he will show `~ y evidence that .there are f hich "' harmful tars in cigarettes w cause cancer and 'hat the com- panies have never givei, any', warning on their, packages or in' advertising ; 'that ' their products' are unwholesome. - I He outlined that he hopes to;, prove his case through a chainll bf statistical, biological, chemi- I cal, pathological, and clinicall evidence, . ~ ~t ~ik: . ~s.. . ,~~... Sl , . H~ALTS' NEfiLECT SEEN f tributory negligence on the part Theodore Kindle of the Newl of Lartigue, the defense attor- York law firm of Davis Polk, , ney described him. a~, a cigar- Sunderland .'and Kindle, asso- ette "fiend" as far back,as 1899• when he was only nine years old. He pointed out that in 1899 the Liggett and Meyers firm ` was not in existence. Kindle called Lartigue "a hu- man chimney" and said that in a pre-trial deposition his widow testified that his smoking was so bad that she "had to get out ~ of the house lots of times." IHe described Lartigue' as a very unhealthy man who had many diseases In his early life and "a prospect for most any type of disease." Kindle told the jury that there is no basis for a monetary re- covery based on anything which happened after July, 1955, the time of Lartigue's death. "Prior . to that ' time," he claimed, f o~ I medical s c i' e n c e had not keached the point where it could be said that smoking cigarettes could cause this condition." CANCER CAUSE PUZZLE The cause of cancer today, Kindle asserted, Is still as much of a mystery as ever. He claimed that the defense will prove that Lartigue's death was not caused by any of the tobacco products. '' Harry Keileher,. of the New Orleans firm of Lemle and Kel- leher, representing Liggett and Meyers, told the jury that he adopted Kindle`s opening state- ment but reminded them that the Llggett and Meyers firm was not established until 1911, 10 years after Lartigue startea smoking_ . ;.. , , .. - He pointed out that until 1911 King Bee tobacco and Picayune cigarettes were manufactured by the W. R. Irby Company of New Orleans. There is serious conflict In medical science as .to what jcauses cancer, he said, "and I Idon't believe anyone can say specifically what causes can ~cer."