Ex-smoker hopes verdict will buy a lung transplant
By: TAMARA LUSH
Associated Press
11/20/09 4:00 PM EST
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — When Cindy Naugle took the witness stand in her lawsuit against tobacco company Philip Morris USA, she toted an oxygen bottle and had to pause a few minutes to catch her breath.
Lawyers for the 61-year-old Naugle say her emphysema is so bad that she needs a lung transplant and can barely walk a few feet without being winded. The cause of her health problems, lawyers argued, was a 25-year smoking habit. Naugle's lawyers said the cigarette maker committed fraud. They said the tobacco company knew — but concealed — that smoking cigarettes is addictive and harmful to a person's health.
Jurors agreed. On Thursday, it took the Broward County panel less than three hours to order Philip Morris to pay Naugle $300 million. It is believed to be the largest award to date among the 7,000-plus lawsuits filed in Florida against tobacco companies.
"If the tobacco industry realizes what their ultimate potential exposure will be, maybe they will decide to do the right thing by these people," said Robert Kelley, the Fort Lauderdale attorney who represented Naugle.
The award amounts to $56 million in compensatory and $244 million in punitive damages against Richmond, Virginia-based Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group Inc.
In a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press on Friday, Philip Morris USA said it would appeal the verdict.
"From the beginning, this case was marked by a fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional trial plan that allowed the jury to rely on findings by a prior jury that have no connection to the plaintiff," said Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, speaking on behalf of Philip Morris USA. "We believe that the punitive damages award is grossly excessive and a clear violation of constitutional and state law."
Edward L. Sweda, Jr., senior attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, said appeals of cases like this often take years.
"Looking at the track record of these cases, the delay really does serve the company's interest and very much does not serve the interest of the individuals, especially if they are very ill or have a serious disease," he said.
Naugle, who is the sister of former Fort Lauderdale mayor Jim Naugle, began smoking Benson & Hedges brand cigarettes in 1958 because she thought it made her look older.
"Her mistake was one of youth," said Kelley.
She tried to quit for 25 years and finally succeeded in 1993 after using a nicotine patch and being diagnosed with emphysema.
Today, she relies on oxygen 24 hours a day and Kelley said Naugle constantly feels like she is "suffocating." A lung transplant will cost at least a half-million dollars.
