Florida jury finds U.S. tobacco maker guilty! by West Palm Beach product injury litigators

2009-02-13 22:11:35 (GMT) (JusticeNewsFlash.com - Justice News Flash, Product liability)

Wiki Image:Altria Group, owner of Philip Morris big tobacco company

Broward jury rules dead man helplessly smoked cigarettes made by Philip Morris. West Palm Beach product injury litigators

West Palm Beach, FL (JusticeNewsFlash.com)–The first of about 8,000 lawsuits filed against big tobacco companies hangs in the balance today in a Broward County Circuit Court. The family of Stuart Hess, who died after contracting lung cancer from 40 years of chain smoking the cigarettes he was addicted to, sued Philip Morris for his wrongful death. The jury returned a verdict on Thursday claiming Stuart Hess became addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes. On Friday the same Broward County jury will hear evidence, from the dead man’s lawyers, that Philip Morris hid the dangers of smoking from innocent consumers like Hess.

Philip Morris now owned by Altria Group, Inc., based in Henrico County, Virginia is one of the world’s largest tobacco corporations. The Hess family legal team will present decades of the tobacco giant’s deceptive practices which they claim placed millions of American consumers at risk for nicotine addiction and the associated illnesses and diseases with cigarette smoking.

This is the first of thousands of tobacco claims which are being litigated on an individual basis since the Florida Supreme Court declassified the previously filed class-action lawsuit. In 2000, a Miami jury returned a record $145 billion punitive damage award, which was the largest in United States history, for a class action suit involving about 700,000 injured smokers filed in 1994. The Florida Supreme court threw out the jury verdict stating it was excessive.

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