IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Tobacco under attack

July 1, 1999
Web posted at: 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 GMT)

MIAMI (CNN) -- A Florida jury ended its fourth day of deliberations Thursday in a precedent-setting anti-tobacco class action civil trial, still without a verdict.

The jury of four men and two women, all but one of them non-smokers, has completed about 27 hours of discussion poring over a 10-question verdict form.

"We're going home," said one of the jurors at day's end when the judge asked if they wanted to continue.

"You put in a long day,' said Dade Circuit Court Judge Robert Kaye. "It's a very arduous procedure."

"Sometimes it pays just to take a break," the judge said.

The jurors will resume deliberations Friday and work until 4 p.m.

Monday is a court holiday. If there is no verdict Friday, deliberations will resume next Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of an estimated half-million Florida smokers, is the first case against the tobacco industry in which plaintiffs are likely to receive individual payments for punitive damages, if jurors rule in their favor.

At issue is whether the tobacco industry is responsible for health problems smokers say they suffered because they couldn't quit smoking.

The smokers say the tobacco industry made a defective product and conspired to deceive the public and government about smoking-related illnesses.

The industry contends smokers should have known the risks of smoking, and that they made their own decision to light up. Tobacco officials also deny allegations they purposely made cigarettes more addictive.

The plaintiffs are seeking at least $200 billion in damages.

The jurors, who are not sequestered, began deliberating late Monday morning after listening to eight months of testimony.

The jury has shown signs that it is having trouble reaching a verdict.

A member of the six-person jury asked the judge what the jurors should do if they are deadlocked on a particular question on the verdict form.

Kaye urged the jurors to listen to one another's opinions and try to avoid a deadlock on any of the questions.

"Do the best you can, folks. That's all I can tell you," Kaye told them.

One juror complained Tuesday night that the panel was stuck and needed a break.

If the jury finds the companies guilty, it will consider compensatory and punitive damages.

The defendants are Philip Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and the Liggett Group Inc., as well as the now-defunct Council for Tobacco Research and the Tobacco Institute.

Also Wednesday, lead tobacco attorney Robert Heim had asked Kaye to relax his gag order to allow tobacco representatives to talk with reporters.

But the judge said he would not allow lawyers and parties to the case to do so. Kaye said he would reconsider the motion after the verdict.

The plaintiffs are represented by Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, who in 1997 won a $349 million settlement for flight attendants in a secondhand-smoke case against the tobacco industry.

In that class action case, the settlement was used to establish a research foundation.

The tobacco industry has also agreed to pay four states a total of $37 billion to settle lawsuits over the costs of treating sick smokers. Florida was among those states, but nothing in its settlement prevents individuals from suing.

Correspondent Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.

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