Patricia Henley and Madelyn Chaber after 1999 Verdict Against Phllip Morris
A Florida jury Thursday ordered Philip Morris to pay a plaintiff who has emphysema what is believed to be the largest award to date among thousands of lawsuits filed in the state against tobacco companies. Ms. Madelyn Chaber, the San Francisco attorney who won the first major lawsuit again Big Tobacco in 1999 said she couldn’t be more pleased.
“The verdict in Florida, on the heels of several other verdicts against the cigarette companies, sends yet another message that Philip Morris doesn't seem to understand: people are fed up with tobacco industry lies,” Ms. Chaber said in a statement issued from Chicago where she is attending Northwestern Law School in Chicago where she is attending Third Annual Conference on "Avenues to Advancement”
“Instead of taking responsibility for the products it makes, like every other industry does, Philip Morris refuses to own up to it's responsibility for the devastating harm they have caused. They've made millions of billions of dollars, and now they need to pay for the damage their products do,” Ms. Chaber added.
Ms. Chaber, 60, won the first major lawsuit against Big first encountered the cigarette companies in 1996 when she was representing Dr Milton Horowitz, a Beverly Hills psychotherapist, who was diagnosed with Mesothelioma, a fatal cancer caused by asbestos. His cancer, it was determined, was caused by asbestos in the filter of Kent cigarettes, which he smoked in the 1950's. Their lawsuit against Lorillard Tobacco Co. resulted in a $2 million verdict, including punitive damages, which was the first of its kind won by a plaintiff against a tobacco company.
Chaber was a veteran San Francisco lawyer who represented retired shipyard workers dying of exposure to asbestos when she met a brassy lounge singer named Patricia Henley who ran a drain-cleaning business in Los Angeles. After smoking Marlboros for 35 years, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Facing an uncertain future, she was
determined to sue tobacco giant Philip Morris for what she was convinced were decades of deception and deceit.
"I told her from the beginning we were going to lose," said Ms. Chaber. The cigarette industry had been virtually unbeatable in court, suffering only two losses for relatively small amounts.
A year later in 1999, they made history, winning a $51 million award in San Francisco Superior Court -- the nation's first multimillion-
Ms Chaber followed the Henley case with a second victory against Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.
For more information about Ms. Chaber’s work, see http://www.optimalenergyleadership.com Telephone: 510-749-0175
Photo:
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