Tobacco Documents Online

0 • • IN Tobacco Trial, Tobacco Foes Vow To Continue Fight INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Cigarette companies have won the latest courtroom battle, but anti-smoking groups say that will not slow their fight against the tobacco industry. "The cases will still be brought in county courts all around the country," said Richard Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University in Boston and chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project. "The companies are continuing to blame the victim publicly and deny the dangers of smoking." On Friday, a Marion County jury found that four cigarette companies were not responsible for the cancer death of an Indianapolis attorney who began smoking at age 5 and continued until just before his death in 1987 at 52. The decision came on the same day that President Clinton imposed historic limits on the marketing of cigarettes to children and just weeks after a Florida jury awarded $750,000 to a man who got lung cancer after 44 years of smoking. The Florida decision was only the second time a jury has ordered the industry to pay damages and.,the other decision in New Jersey in 1988 was later overturned and the case was dropped. The Indianapolis case was being closely watched to see if a trend against tobacco companies was developing. But there was a key difference between the Florida case and Friday's ruling in Indianapolis. In the Florida case that went in favor of Grady Carter on Aug. 9, lawyers were able to introduce secret tobacco company documents linking nicotine and addiction. Those records were barred from the Rogers case because it was a retrial and the judge limited evidence to that introduced the first time. The first trial ended with a mistrial when the jury couldn't reach a decision. John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health and a law professor at George Washington University in Washington, said the documents are key to winning lawsuits against tobacco companies. "If you don't have the secret documents, you blame the victim," he said of juries. "If you do have the documents, blame the companies." A juror in the Florida case said the tobacco company documents were a key to that jury's decision. "Juries are often very reluctant to return verdicts in cases where all you can say is the manufacturer wasn't as careful as they could be," Banzhaf said. "When you can show the manufacturers did bad things, covered up and lied, then juries get angry." But tobacco companies have repeatedly said the Florida verdict was an aberration and will not set a precedent for future cases. Cigarette makers have never paid a penny in damages in a smoking-related suit. And the Indianapolis case which Philip Morris attorney David Hardy called a "must win" is proof there is no groundswell against the tobacco industry in U.S. courtrooms, they say. "This ruling further suggests that the carter verdict in

0 • Florida two weeks ago was an aberration;' said Daniel Donahue, a R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. vice president. "We believe that case will be overturned on appeal and, in light of today's Rogers verdict, critics of the tobacco industry were premature in declaring it a turning point in tobacco litigation." Rogers' widow, Yvonne Rogers, was seeking at least $424,000 from four tobacco companies in lost earnings and medical expenses. The suit was filed shortly before his death and claimed Rogers was addicted to cigarettes and that smoking caused his cancer. Tobacco lawyers said Rogers chose to smoke, despite warnings of the potential risks. In the end, jurors agreed. "We tried to do what we thought was just ... We came forth with a verdict we thought was just," said jury foreman David Anderson. Copyright (c) 1996 The Associated Press Received by NewsEDGE/LAN: 8/26/96 7:03 AM 49