Flight attendants voice anger over tobacco settlement

Susan and Stanley Rosenblatt

February 6, 1998
Web posted at: 7:55 p.m. EST (0055 GMT)

MIAMI (CNN) -- A $349 million settlement of a landmark secondhand smoke lawsuit will stand, despite controversy over paying $46 million to attorneys and nothing to the flight attendant plaintiffs, a judge said in an order released Friday.

The class action lawsuit, in which some 60,000 nonsmoking flight attendants sued the tobacco industry for secondhand smoke injuries, was settled last October.

The lawsuit alleged the cigarette makers knew the dangers to nonsmokers of cigarette smoke, and hid the health risks from flight attendants and other Americans. It was the first class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry -- and the first suit addressing secondhand smoke -- to go to trial.

Settlement paid for foundation, legal fees

In the settlement, the tobacco industry agreed to pay $300 million to create a foundation to study the effects of cigarette smoke on flight attendants, and to pay the legal fees and expenses of the flight attendants' attorneys.

While the settlement was in the flight attendants' favor, a small but growing number now feel the agreement was harmful because it left all 60,000 flight attendants out in the cold.

Their frustrations center on Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, husband and wife attorneys who represented the flight attendants and negotiated the settlement.

Flight attendant law suit 2 min. 50 sec VXtreme video

The couple also saw to it that the tobacco industry would pay $46 million for their legal fees and expenses.

No money went into plaintiffs' pockets

But the settlement included nary a penny for any of the flight attendants who joined the lawsuit.

Flight attendant Barbara Kaye

"We want a fair share of what we're entitled to," said flight attendant Barbara Kaye, who added that she doesn't care about funding for the foundation to study secondhand smoke's effects. "I already know what the effects are. They don't have to study it any further as far as I'm concerned."

The agreement does allow flight attendants the right to take their case to court against tobacco, even if that right would otherwise have expired under statutes of limitation.

But some flight attendants say they don't have the money to fight the industry individually. "That's why we joined together for a class action suit," said flight attendant Gail Ford. "It was the one way we could go to court and hopefully win, and that's all been lost."

Dade County Circuit Judge Robert Kaye said in his court order upholding the settlement, dated Tuesday, that it was "fair, reasonable, adequate and in the best interests of the class."

Attorney turned down request for interview

Meanwhile, attorney Stanley Rosenblatt turned down a request from CNN to talk about the flight attendants' complaints.

In a phone conversation with CNN's Robert Vito, he said, "You used terrible judgment even to talk to the flight attendants. I'm not going to debate them. And I'm not talking to you publicly anymore because you made the decision to talk to them."

Rosenblatt has purportedly insulted lawyers who oppose his view as well. Eric Olsen, one objecting lawyer, said that after a hearing in which his side asked a judge to undo the settlement, Rosenblatt shouted at him and called him a "f---ing worm ... and words to that effect."

After that hearing, the judge rejected the opposing attorneys' appeal, instead giving it his final approval.

Lawyers representing the dissident flight attendants say they plan to appeal.

According to court documents, the approval of the settlement means the Rosenblatts will immediately receive their first payment, $3 million. They will receive the rest of the money, $40 million-plus, only if they successfully overcome objections to the suit in the appeals process.

Correspondent Robert Vito and Reuters contributed to this report.

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