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Philip Morris to Appeal $1.9 Million Award to Widower of Two-Pack-a-Day Smoker
Daily Business Review
August 14, 2009
A Broward Circuit Court jury awarded $1.93 million Thursday to the husband of a woman who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for more than 40 years. The Florida jury deliberated for more than eight hours before handing down the verdict for Leon Barbanell, 92, who sued on behalf of his late wife, Shirley. The Marlboro smoker started smoking when she was 16 and died from lung cancer in 1996 at 73.
"No amount of money would bring back his wife," said the widower's attorney, Jonathan Gdanski of the Law Offices of Sheldon J. Schlesinger in Fort Lauderdale. "He's suffered tremendously as a result of her passing, and he's entitled to be compensated for her premature death."
Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services associate general counsel, issued a statement on behalf of Marlboro maker Philip Morris saying the verdict was "the result of a severely prejudicial trial plan" and the company will appeal.
Gdanski filed suit against Philip Morris, alleging the tobacco company negligently concealed facts about the dangers of smoking.
"Philip Morris denied she had lung cancer, denied she died from it and denied she was addicted to it," Gdanski said in a telephone interview after the verdict. He said he conceded partial liability from the beginning of the trial, but the tobacco company "challenged every issue they could challenge."
The jury found Philip Morris was liable Monday and decided on damages Thursday. The jury awarded total damages of $5.3 million but assigned 63.5 percent of the blame to Shirley Barbanell, reducing the award to her husband. The Barbanells moved to South Florida in 1982 from New York.
About 8,000 sick smokers are suing statewide in individual spinoffs from a 1994 class action that was disbanded on appeal. The class action named for the late Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle resulted in a $145 billion verdict, which was overturned. The case ended when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision.
