Tobacco Documents Online

it l~ ea The controversy over smokmg gastings dismissed testi mony ~.and lung cancer headed for a for the company as having come showdown in Federal Court here from "paid performers " today1` -t c~F v~ j~~ FnF a t r rSt r> a. . t?t ?~''<' He said statistics have Bhown , r.. *,,After t~wo weeks of •testimony an associatfon between the in• in a 1?~ million dollar damage aease in smoking and tbe in- - auit against the American Tobac- . a.ease in lung caneer fa this co Co., a 12-member jury heard count final arguments of counsel rep- .'resenting the estate of Edwin M. ,--"Don't you think that' the cOm- "Green, a Miamian who died of pany has some responsibility to lung cancer two years ago. '' Iook at the leads which have been - " se 'upplied by scienc'" Hastings Green's w7fe, Mary, of 2712 SW asked the jury. 17th Ave., had charged the can- >!TASTING Il[AB' cex which struck down her hus- He charged the compaay's main band, was caused at least in part, concern has been the taste of its ~ by his habit of smoking three _, t,. product. paekages of Lucky Strike cigar ` By ARTHL;R JOHNSEY ets daiiy for over 20 years. "They have maintained a tast- Henia sran wrmr EVIDENCE DECISIVE mg lab instead' of a testing lAb," A Miarni Federal Court jury Hastings said, adding that t =- -- The contention of Mrs. Greenhe Monday became the only jury that Lucky Strikes were un - firm has spent biilions for adver- the country to considpr the was aafe for human consumtion. tising and "not a penny for re- q estion of whether lung can- p. . search into the problem." cer can be caused by heavy , In his summary. Dr. Lawrence - ' --.smokingn y Hastings, attorney for M r s. Testimony in this case has been 8ut atter three hours of de . ~ Green; `loid the jury thaf it had ~heard from physicians and scient- _:_liberations, the jury was dis tsts for both sides M; missed for the night, with m merely to consider whether there 4.-;`, ~r .= l struetions to ret'urn today at was preponderance of evidence Final argument from the tobac- 9 a.m., to resume their efforts against the manufacturer -- not co company was to be heard later to bring in a verdict in the ' whether testimony'had shown coe- today. Judge Emett' C. Choate "lung cancer" damage suit ,elusive proof that Lucky Strikes was to charge the jury later this tr'ial• caused the lung caneer. ` afternoon, U.S: District Judge Emett , Choatp instructed the 12- member jury early in the after- noon on the laws governing the ease, and put the decision 9n their hands. "You are the first jury in the' w•orld ever to have the opportunity to consider this evidence," declared the attorn- ey for tlie estate of Edwin F. Green, contractor who died in 1958: , ~. aneer Liability Gcts First Test His estate sued the Ameri- can Tobacco Co. to prove t'ung eancer brought on by smoking ~ for some 30 years caused his death slw~'y} x*y~i4r{fi.~~}r~ n The case went to the jury "with the warning of nerican Tobacco Co. counsel that 'a verdict permitting damages for ; Green's death would ruin the tobacco industry, .:~ Such a decision, which t~ie at-^ , torney for the company..said ± Krould be based on evidence that "amounted to speculation, could mean the "death knell of the industry" by openmg a rash of ~ damage suits. He said no proof had been, offered that a primary lunQ cancer caused Green's death, • and emphasized a possibility that the contractor's affliction could have come frQm some other part of his body j. ^ ' ^' Repeatedly' 'he ""asked a the jury to remember that no ` autopsy had been taken after Green died although Green bimseif filed the suit and re- oorded his own testimony be- . A, tore his deathf4- :X~ a ~ ,tti ~. ~ t ="'1'he estate's attorney told 'the jury a lung cancer test case was reaching the jury for the first time "because every obstruc- . ~ tion in the world has been put in the way of the case getting this far." ' The jury summations climax- ed tavo weeks of testimony in which Green's wife, Mary, of 2712 SW 17th Ave., contended the cancer that' struck down her hasband was caused at least in part by his smoking two to three pac&s of cigarets a day. The estate's attorney charg- ed that the company's major concern in its researeh program has been preserving the taste ot its cigarets rather than find- inQ whether they are harmful. 403543 a~{i: