Tobacco Documents Online

Page 2 of 2 • nicotine addiction than they claim. In addition, the Clinton adminstration's plan to tighten regulation of tobacco, giving the Food and Drug Adminstration new power to regulate tobacco and restrict sales to teens, may be affecting public opinion as well. One of the more memorable moments of the trial was the showing of a deposition taken before Rogers' death, in which the bald, overweight attorney said he made numerous attempts to quit smoking before he finally succeeded with hypnosis treatment in 1986. That was just weeks before he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Yvonne Rogers was seeking unspecified damages, citing $71,000 in health-care expenses, lost earnings and loss of love and affection. Richard Rogers had three children. He started smoking at age 5, when he would take butts from his father's ashtray. By the time he finished college, he was smoking two to three packs a day. -- Leslie Hillman in Princeton (609) 279-4065 with reporting by Heather Landy in Chicago lbl/jpw (Story illustration: To graph Standard & Poor's index of tobacco companies, type SPTOBC <Index> GPO <Go>. For company news and stock_informat_ion: MO US, RN US, ETI US, UST US, LTR US, BGL US <Equity> CN, BQ, RV. For industry news: NI TOB. For legal news: NI LAW. For regional news: NI IN, NI FL, NI US.) ~ 20:32 -0- (BBN) Aug/23/96 20:32 ---------------------------------_____________--------------- 0 Copyright (C) 1996 Bloomberg, L.P.

Page 1 of 2 BBN 20:32 Indiana Jury Finds for Tobacco Industry in Liability Case . Indiana Jury Finds for Tobacco Industry in Liability Case Indianapolis, Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- An Indiana jury ruled for tobacco companies in a widely-watched liability suit, rejecting the claims of an attorney's widow that the cigarettes he smoked were defective and that the companies selling them were negligent. The case is the first tobacco smoker's liability suit to reach a verdict since a Jacksonville, Florida, jury on Aug. 9 ordered American Tobacco Co. to pay $750,000 to a smoker who developed cancer. Tobacco stocks may rise on the news Monday, reversing some of the beating they took after the Florida verdict, analysts said. A loss in the Rogers trial would have sent tobacco stocks tumbling even further. " If (the tobacco companies) win, it would emphasize the fact that the Carter decision was an exception in a long string of victories, " Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Allan Kaplan said before the decision. The verdict comes the same day President Bill Clinton approved regulations that would classify nicotine as a drug and curb advertising and sales of cigarettes to teen-agers. The president had been expected to approve the regulations for a year, and administration officials haven't commented on whether having the regulations come out the same day as the verdict was coincidental. The Indianapolis jury deliberated two days before reaching its decision this evening. It was the second trial for the Rogers vs R.J. Reynolds Tobacco suit. The first ended in a 5-1 hung jury in ~ February 1995. Marion County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Johnson yesterday afternoon gave final instructions to the jury -- five women and one man -- who were deciding on whether cigarette makers knowingly sold an " unreasonably dangerous " product or neglected to make consumers aware of risks associated with smoking. Defendants in the case included industry leader Philip Morris Cos.,'RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp.'s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit, Brooke Group Ltd.'s Liggett unit, and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and American Tobacco, both part of B.A.T Industries Plc. The suit was brought by Yvonne Rogers of Indianapolis on behalf of her husband Richard, who died of lung cancer in 1987 at age 52. The retrial began Aug. 5. Before the verdict in the Jacksonville case -- Carter vs American Tobacco -- the industry hadn't lost a tobacco liability case since a jury_awarded $400,000 in Cipollone vs Liggett Group in 1988_. The Cipollone case was later overturned on appeal. Some investors have been concerned that the loss in the Carter case in Florida reflects a sea change in public opinion against the industry. Since the first Rogers trial last year, the industry has been hounded by the publication of internal company documents, some of which suggest tobacco companies may have known more about Gf ---------- --- ----------------------------- Copyright (C) 1996 Bloomberg, L.P. 40