Man Wins $1.1 Million from Big Tobacco
July 17, 2001
Grady Carter, a 71-year-old Jacksonville, Florida resident, is the first individual to slip through the web of tobacco company lawyers to collect a personal injury check. Carter became a national icon for the anti-smoking movement when a 1996 Jacksonville jury awarded him $750,000 in damages from the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., the maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes. Recently, Brown & Williamson sent Carter a check in the amount of $1.1 million, representing the damages awarded plus interest.
Carter spent his youth on a South Georgia farm growing cotton, peanuts, rice, vegetables and tobacco. Neither Carter nor his parents ever smoked the tobacco they grew. One fateful afternoon the family's doctor left a pack of Kool cigarettes on a fence post and young Grady Carter smoked one. Thereafter, he began smoking cigarette butts his uncles threw on the ground and by age 17 Carter smoked Lucky Strikes regularly with his Jacksonville high school classmates. Carter continued to smoke for the next 44 years.
Carter married his wife Millie in 1983. After taking their vows, Carter agreed to quit smoking. Over the next eight years, Carter continuously battled his habit. Millie, suffering from serious allergies, would wake up in the middle of the night coughing and sneezing. Grady agreed not to smoke in the house or the car to help Millie. He eventually developed a severe smoker's cough, yet he still did not quit smoking.
During Carter's long and successful career as a federal air traffic control supervisor, he continued to smoke Lucky Strikes. At one point he was smoking two packs a day. In the 1960s when the government's warnings to quit smoking became more serious, he began struggling to quit.
Carter estimates he tried to quit smoking 100 times. He tried low-tar brands and filters but nothing worked. When Carter finally decided to quit in 1991, it was too late. Three days after he smoked his last cigarette, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Carter filed his suit after seeing tobacco executives tell Congress that cigarettes were not addictive. The suit alleged that Brown & Williamson Co., the makers of Lucky Strikes, knew the dangers of tobacco in the 1940s when Carter began smoking. The suit also claimed that the company should have warned the public before the Surgeon General's 1964 decision ordering warnings on cigarette packs.
At the 1996 trial, Carter's lawyer showed the jury Lucky Strike ads from the 1930s and '40s. One ad shows a doctor claiming that, "20,679 physicians say Luckies are less irritating." The poster also said that Luckies offered "throat protection."
This was the first trial in which a single plaintiff presented a set of internal documents stolen from Brown & Williamson by a company paralegal. One of the documents, a 1963 company memo, contains strategies to deal with the upcoming Surgeon General's report and warning requirement. The executive vice president's memo says that nicotine is addictive and that the company should try to make cigarettes that produce less smoke but still give consumers "a nice jolt of nicotine."
During the trial, Carter readily accepted blame. He admitted that he started and continued to smoke but he testified that, "it's time they (Brown & Williamson) admitted their responsibility."
Lawyers and doctors hired by Brown & Williamson said that Grady Carter's failure to stop smoking showed weakness. They portrayed Carter as a risk-taker, one who could not control his dangerous urges. They presented evidence of Carter's love of motorcycle riding and flying small airplanes. They also established that Carter continued to eat Oreo cookies despite his doctor's warnings to cut cholesterol.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of Grady Carter after only ten hours of deliberation. A Florida appeals court overturned the judgment in 1998 but the Florida Supreme Court reinstated it in November 2000. On June 29, 2001, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in the case, Grady Carter officially became the first individual plaintiff to claim a complete victory against Big Tobacco.
Carter says he has "no big plans" for his money and did not particularly need it. He is cancer-free now and 90 percent of his medical costs were paid by his government health insurance.
Carter's victory in 1996 touched off a firestorm of tobacco suits. However, the success of such suits has been limited. Some high-profile cases are still on appeal and others have gone in favor of tobacco companies.
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
More ...
- Tobacco Companies Pressured Makers of Anti-Smoking Products
- New Study Suggests Smokeless Tobacco Company Is Targeting Children
- "Tobacco Giants Ordered to Pay Man $200,000"
.