Weingart v. R.J. Reynolds (West Palm Beach, Florida)

Searcy Denny’s Jack Hill and Hardee Bass take on Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard in this Engle-progeny tobacco trial.

In his opening statement, Hardee Bass (Searcy Denney) told the jury, “This is a case about deceit. It’s about a promise that an industry — the cigarette industry — made to a generation of people. The World War II generation…It’s about the lies they told to that generation of smokers. And it’s about the truth they kept hidden from that generation of smokers.”

“It’s also a case about addiction,” Mr. Bass continued, “and particularly addiction to nicotine found in cigarettes. A drug. An addictive drug that the Surgeon General of the United States has deemed as addictive as heroin and cocaine.”

“And it’s also a case about how those two — the deceit of the cigarette industry, and the addictive nature of nicotine — it’s about how those two combined to cause the death of Claire Weingart. Members of the jury, Claire Weingart was born December 13, 1923, and had she not suffered an over fifty-year addiction to nicotine and cigarettes she would not have died prematurely at the age of seventy-three in November of 1997. And her husband Jerry Weingart — of 54 years — would not have spent his golden years without her.”

Representing Philip Morris, Ken Reilly (Shook Hardy Bacon) told the jury, “We know what the plaintiffs have admitted regarding Claire’s own decisions and the role they played in her developing her lung cancer. So now the question is did anybody else have a role — a legal cause role — in her developing her cancer and dying…Is anybody else in the mirror, when Mrs. Weingart looks in the mirror and decides whether she’s going to smoke today or not. It’s as simple as that.”

“Smoking has literally always come with critics. Always,” said Mr. Reilly. “And people have referred to smoking and smokers as addicts. Not beginning in the 40′s or the 50′s or some secret that the tobacco industry knew…Go back a hundred years…People have talked about being addicted to tobacco for a hundred and fifty years. Two hundred years…In fact, Christopher Columbus complained that his sailors — when he was bringing tobacco back to Spain — that his sailors wouldn’t stop smoking…tobacco…People have described nicotine and tobacco as a drug for a hundred years.”

Representing Lorillard, Justus Reid (Reid & Zobel) reviewed for the jurors the many warnings Ms. Weingart had that smoking was dangerous from her friends and her physicians, and suggested that the evidence would show not that Ms. Weingart was unable to quit, but that she did not want to quit. Mr. Reid also suggested that there was not a great deal of evidence of Ms. Weingart’s smoking a Lorillard brand, Kent.

Representing R.J. Reynolds, Jonathan Engram (Womble Carlyle) cautioned the jury that the cigarette advertisements that might be shown during the trial were not remarkable in that they intended to convince people to smoke a tobacco company’s branded products, which was no different from how soft drink or fast food ads try to attract customers. Morever, there would be no evidence, said Mr. Engram, that cigarette advertising influenced Ms. Weingart’s behavior.

Finally, said Mr. Engram, the words “secret” and “confidential” on internal tobacco company documents simply reflected a desire to keep information safe from competitors, for the same reason that Pepsi doesn’t know Coke’s formula, and Popeye’s doesn’t know the Colonel’s secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices. “They are competitors, and they guard their manufacturing processes as part of doing business, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” said Mr. Engram.

CVN webcast the Weingart Tobacco Trial live.

The jury in Buonomo v. R.J. Reynolds awarded over $30M in damages: $0.4M in past medical expenses, $4.8M in compensatory damages to Matthew Buonomo’s wife, Connie Buonomo, and $25M in punitive damages.

The jury assigned 77.5% fault to R.J. Reynolds, and 22.5% fault to Matthew Buonomo.

In closing argument, the plaintiffs had asked for $13M in compensatory damages, and $62M in punitive damages.  The defense suggested that in addition to the $405K in past medical expenses, $250K would compensate Connie Buonomo for the loss of her husband, and even if punitive damages were assessed, an amount of $250K was warranted, because it would effectively double the compensatory award.

CVN’s Engle-Progeny Verdict Tracker shows the trend in Engle verdicts.

CVN webcast the Buonomo tobacco trial live. 

Penalty phase closing arguments began today in CVN’s live webcast of the Buonomo v. R.J. Reynolds Engle-progeny tobacco trial.

Plaintiff attorney John Uustal, of the law firm Kelley Ustall, told the jury, “R.J. Reynolds designed their cigarettes to be as addictive as possible, while targeting children, sending people to schools, knowing this was a deadly product…You will decide in this case whether R.J.R needs to be punished.  That is your decision.”

Uustall suggested that Todd Buonomo’s compensatory damages, for pain and suffering during his life time, and for the shortening of his life, should be approximately $13M. According to Uustal, a punitive damage award of even $62M would have no effect on R.J. Reynolds’ operations, and would be just a fraction of R.J. Reynolds’ profits, which he estimated at $3.5M per day.

Defense attorney Steven Giese, of the law firm Jones Day, responded “This case is not a referendum on cigarettes or smoking…Cigarettes are a legal product. They are legal to manufacture. They are legal to sell…They are legal to smoke…and you can’t hold Reynolds liable for the mere act of selling cigarettes.”

“There is no evidence that he started smoking because of anything Reynolds did or anything Reynolds said…There is no evidence that anyone, including Reynolds, forced him to continue smoking during the 1940′s. It was his own decision.”

According to Giese, Buonomo selected Camel as his regular brand because Mrs. Buonomo preferred the smell of Camel, and he liked the taste of Camel, not because of any advertising or company statements. The ads might influence the public generally, but in this case there was no evidence that the ads influenced Mr. Buonomo.

CVN is webcasting live the Buonomo v. Reynolds Engle-progeny tobacco trial. 

 Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld polls the jury in CVN’s live webcast of Buonomo v. R.J. Reynolds.  

The jury found that Matthew Buonomo had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) before November 21, 1996, that he was addicted to cigarettes containing nicotine and that the addiction was a legal cause of his COPD.

Opening statements in the penalty phase begin today at 1pm Eastern time. 

CVN is webcasting the Buonomo tobacco trial live. 

CVN’s webcast of the Engle-progeny tobacco trial Buonomo v. R.J. Reynolds began Wednesday with opening statements.

Plaintiff attorney Todd McPharlin, of Kelley Uustall, told the jury that the evidence would show that Matthew Buonomo’s addiction to cigarettes caused emphysema, a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Matthew allegedly died, in December 2008, from end-stage COPD.

“He smoked three packs a day for almost 40 years,” said Mr. McPharlin. “He smoked first thing in the morning…If he ran out, he’d look for cigarette butts in the ash trays around the house…That’s addiction. That’s what he went through. He smoked when he shaved. He smoked when he ate. He smoked as he was walking into church.”

“For over 20 years he tried to quit. There were times when he would go a couple days, three days. I think the longest he went was about five days. And the family remembers how hard it was….The reason why it was so hard for them is because they were desperately addicted to a drug — to one of the most addictive drugs there is.”

According to defense attorney Steven Geise, of Jones Day, “Mr. Buonomo smoked because he wanted to, not because he was addicted….He made his own decisions. When he wanted to, he quit cold turkey, in the mid 1990′s, and he never smoked again. That will be the evidence.”

In addition, said Mr. Geise, “the plaintiff cannot prove that Mr. Buonomo had COPD or emphysema before November 21, 1996. The medical evidence will show that he had congestive heart failure, a disease that is not caused by smoking. And that congestive heart failure, 13 years later, caused his death, at the age of 80.”