Jury: Secondhand smoke made her ill

In a landmark rebuke of Big Tobacco, a Miami jury on Tuesday ordered four major cigarette manufacturers to pay $5.5 million in damages to a veteran flight attendant who blames her chronic sinusitis on secondhand smoke. The six-person Miami-Dade County jury spent two hours deliberating before deciding that the tobacco companies were responsible for the sinus problems suffered by then-TWA flight attendant Lynn French, 56, of Los Angeles. According to legal experts for both sides, the verdict is believed to mark the first time a U.S. jury has ruled against a tobacco company in a secondhand smoke case. "A huge victory," said Miami attorney Marvin Weinstein, whose firm represents French and more than 500 other flight attendants. French sobbed and hugged her attorneys after the verdict was announced. "I feel relieved. I am surprised it was so much," French said. "It feels like justice was done." The verdict Tuesday is also the second in as many weeks where a Miami jury has hammered the tobacco industry. Last week, a jury ordered tobacco makers to pay a record $37.5 million to a retired Miami lawyer dying from tongue cancer. Edward L. Sweda Jr., senior attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project - an antitobacco advocate - called the latest verdict "a powerful educational tool in helping the public realize that exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke is indeed a significant and unnecessary hazard for nonsmokers who are exposed to it."

THE VERDICT

The tobacco companies will ask Circuit Judge Frederica Smith to set aside the verdict, said William S. Ohlemeyer, vice president and associate general counsel for Philip Morris Companies. If Smith refuses, Ohlemeyer said the manufacturers will turn to the Third District Court of Appeal. The jury did not determine how the penalties should be split among Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and Lorillard, but Weinstein said it could likely be divided by market share. Based on a 1997 class-action settlement involving 3,125 non-smoking flight attendants, French's attorneys had to convince the jury that secondhand smoke causes chronic sinusitis. Then they had to convince jurors that secondhand smoke significantly contributed to French's illness.

MAJOR WIN

Weinstein hailed the verdict as a major victory because 1,846 other flight attendants have lawsuits pending against the tobacco companies in which they claim they are suffering from sinusitis - and other ailments - arising from secondhand smoke. The rest of the flight attendants blame secondhand smoke on different physical problems. French, who used to fly for TWA and now flies for American Airlines, said she inhaled secondhand smoke for the first 14 years of her 26-year career until smoking was banned on U.S. commercial airliners in 1990.

AGREEMENT

Both sides agree she has chronic sinusitis, but a battery of doctors hired by the tobacco companies testified that French's persistent inflammation of the sinuses was more commonly caused by bacteria and allergies, rather than secondhand smoke. Witnesses for the tobacco companies testified that based on French's work history she was exposed to a minimal amount of secondhand smoke. French's attorneys told jurors not to trust the doctors, who were paid tens of thousands of dollars to testify for the tobacco companies. "They are going to take simple issues and make them confusing, cloudy and dirty," said French attorney Adam Trop. The French case is a result of the 1997 class-action settlement that created a system of mini-trials for the flight attendants suing the cigarette makers in Miami. The tobacco companies agreed to pay $300 million to establish a fund for scientific research. In return, the flight attendants could only sue for pain and suffering, not punitive damages.

MIAMI CASE

The tobacco companies prevailed in the first Miami case that went to trial in April. Jurors concluded former TWA flight attendant Marie Fontana's exposure to secondhand smoke did not cause her bronchitis, emphysema and pulmonary diseases. Fontana, 60, a Haitian-born resident of Boca Raton, suffered from a mysterious bloodclogging lung disease that jurors believed was the root of her respiratory problems. A second flight attendant case ended in mistrial last month. French's case was the second to reach a Miami jury. Asked if this was the first time Big Tobacco had lost a secondhand smoke case in the United States, Philip Morris spokesman John Sorrells answered: "Yes."

TOBACCO MAKERS

Sorrells said the tobacco makers have prevailed in the three previous trials in Indiana, Mississippi and Florida. Courts in Norway and Australia have have sided with nightclub workers who blamed their throat cancers on secondhand smoke. "The tobacco industry has waged a multimillion dollar effort to deny the fact that secondhand smoke is dangerous - and can be deadly," antitobacco advocate Sweda said from his Boston office. Ohlemeyer said the tobacco companies believe that the evidence does not support and findings that secondhand smoke causes the type of injuries that are being alleged by the flight attendants. The companies, he said, will continue to "vigorously defend" the individual cases.

Herald Staff Writer Jay Weaver and The Associated Press contributed to this report.