Jury Rules Tobacco Industry Not Liable for Lung Disease April 6, 2001
News Summary
A Miami, Fla., jury ruled in favor of the tobacco industry in the case of a flight attendant who sought compensatory damages for a lung disease she blamed on secondhand smoke, the Associated Press reported April 6.Marie Fontana, who is awaiting a lung transplant, sued the tobacco industry, claiming her lung cancer was a result of cigarette smoke in jetliner cabins.
The lawsuit was the first of 3,200 claims resulting from the tobacco industry's $349 million settlement of a national class-action suit by nonsmoking flight attendants. As part of the settlement, attendants could sue individually for damages.
During the case, Fontana's lawyers argued that her medical condition was provoked by smoky air in the TWA jets she flew from 1973 to 1996. But attorneys for Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard countered that Fontana's emphysema and chronic bronchitis were a result of sarcoidosis, a disease that medical authorities say has no known cause.
In making its decision, the jury determined that the tobacco industry was not liable for Fontana's lung disease.
In 1990, smoking was banned on domestic flights of U.S. airlines, followed by a ban on international flights in 1997.
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