Blitch v. R.J. Reynolds (Jacksonville, Florida).

Snapping a six-case plaintiff winning streak, Liggett Group, in a rare appearance as solo defendant in an Engle-progeny trial, prevailed in a case brought on behalf of smoker Betty Blitch.

In his closing statement, Wilner Hartley’s Woody Wilner urged the jury, when considering how much fault to assign to Ms. Blitch, to keep in mind that “This was a combined, massive effort to sell cigarettes, that Liggett belonged to, and everybody else belonged to. As we look under the door, and see the ugliness inside, this was the biggest conspiracy, the biggest public relations blitz in American history…And of course this was an industry that had the power to spend $250 billion dollars on advertising in this time period.”

For Liggett, Kasowitz Benson’s Kelly Luther argued that smoking did not cause Ms. Blitch’s esophageal cancer, and that smoking Liggett cigarettes definitely did not contribute to her esophogeal cancer. “Even if you were to remove all of Betty Blitch’s smoking, she had a substantial risk of going on to develop her esophogeal cancer because of the other risk factors that she had,” including alcohol use, cervical cancer, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). 

The jury found that Ms. Blitch was addicted to smoking, and the addiction to smoking was the legal cause of the cancer that caused her death. However, the jury also found that neither Liggett’s actions nor the defective nature of the cigarettes was a legal cause of Ms. Blitch’s death.

CVN webcast the Blitch v. Liggett trial live.

Blitch v. R.J. Reynolds (Jacksonville, Florida).

Laura Elizabeth “Betty” Blitch died in 1998 of cancer of the esophagus, allegedly caused by smoking. Ms. Blitch was born in 1924 and apparently started smoking Liggett’s Chesterfield cigarette brand in the 1940′s. In the 1970′s she smoked Eve, another Liggett brand. “The Liggett contribution was overwhelming,” said Norwood “Woody” Wilner, of Wilner Hartley & Metcalf. “There was no question. It became her major brand, her only brand, and it was probably her starting brand.”

In describing to the jury the relative toxicity of cigarettes, Mr. Wilner said, “If you want to compare cigarettes with anything else, like alcohol…7,000 per million per year die of cigarette smoking. Only 275 from alcohol. Only 6 from air pollution…Today we heard the tragedy from Japan, possibly 10,000 people dead. How do you compare it to this? About 10,000 deaths per week in the United States from cigarettes.”

According to Mr. Wilner, these were all preventable, unnecessary deaths, and Liggett, having made misrepresentations about the safety of smoking with the intention of misleading smokers, could not blame anyone else for smoking its product.

For Liggett, Kasowitz Benson’s Kelly Luther told the jury that Liggett today was a very small domestic cigarette manufacturer with one factory, and today only manufactures discount cigarette brands. The main story in the case, said Mr. Luther, was Betty Blitch and the lifestyle choices that she made.

According to Ms. Luther, the plaintiff’s story was mostly a “side show…The history and design of cigarettes, and issues about Liggett and the conduct of other tobacco companies that aren’t even defendants in this lawsuit — these things, the evidence will show, have never had any bearing or impact on Mrs. Blitch.”

CVN is webcasting live the Blitch-Liggett tobacco trial.